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Notes on the Sons of HorusAuthor(s): John Gee Published: Provo, UT; FARMS, 1991

Type: Report

Archived by permission of the author, John Gee

GEE-91

Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies

John Gee

Notes onthe Sons of Horus

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Notes on the Sons of Horus

Table of Contents

Note 1

"These are the Generations ..." 3

The Canopic Connection 6

"The Soft Sway of {Indefinable Omnipotence

O'er our Strong Male-Stuff" 14

"After the Manner of the Egyptians" 17

"Come From the Four Winds" 29

"As the Heavens are Higher than the Earth" 35

"What, Are There Masgues?" 40

Table of Abbreviations 58

Guide to the Figures 50

Figures gj

Notes on the Sons of Horus1

1This piece is an abridgment and adaptation of a paper the author submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master's degree in Near Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Many thanks to Michael Lyon for his assistance in preparing the illustrations for this paper.

2This was first established in Henri Brugsch, Die Geographie des alten Aegyptens (Leipzig, 1857), 30-37.

3See William H. Peck, "The Constant Lure," Ancient Egypt: Discovering its Splendors, 16.

Sources are easy to find so here we limit ourselves to the most important and available sources, listed in chronological order: E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians of Studies in Egyptian Mythology, 2 vols. (London: Methuen, 1904, reprinted New York: Dover, 1969), 1:210, 456, 491-92, 2:106, 144; E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, 2 vols. (New York: Dover, 1973, reprint of Medici Society, 1911), 2:26, 167; Gaston Maspero, Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1914), 191; Penelope Fox, Tutankhamun's Treasure (London: Oxford University

John Gee

Note: The first Facsimile of the Book of Abraham has stirred much debate centered the identification of various figures and what the Egyptologists think they can and cannot be. For the time being we will leave aside the larger questions which this picture raises and concentrate on the four idolatrous gods under the lion couch. Egyptologists know these gods as the Sons of Horus or canopic jars (though the two are not necessarily identical as we shall see) . Herein we will take the Egyptological point of view; he who hath eyes to see can make his own connections.

The standard interpretation of the Sons of Horus is that they

are the guardians of the canopic jars, each with its own unique name, animal head, internal organ, cardinal direction,2 and

protective goddess. The beginning of this interpretation was first suggested by Richard Pococke in 17373—nearly a century before

Champoil ion—and has been repeated with minor accretions ever

since.4 At the turn of this century, Petrie first served notice

2

that the pre-dynastic cultures lacked the canopic jars,5 while

Reisner later discovered the earliest canopic container6—widely

differing from customary patterns—showing that the symbols did not

remain stagnant throughout history, as is usually assumed. If the

evidence of the intervening decade of fortnights necessitates a

reevaluation of the Sons of Horus, such work will have to wait for

a better mind to sort out the pieces; the present work is concerned

principally with odds and ends. Better minds having been occupied

with more important matters,7 your humble servant remains to "tell

Press, 1951), 27; RARG, 315-16; Barbara Mertz, Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs: The Story of Egyptology (New York: Coward-McCann, 1964), 102; Brigitte Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargtexten,ySeries 4, vol. 7 of GO (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1975), 150; Matthieu Heerma von Voss, "Horuskinder," in LdA, 3:52- 53; Dietrich Wildung and Gunther Grimm, Gotter-Pharaonen (Mainz: von Zabern, 1978), #58; AAE, 221; Manfred Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, tr. Barbara Cummings (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), 37-38; Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, tr. John Baines (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1982), 283; A. Rosalie David, "Introduction," Evidence Embalmed: Modern Medicine and the Mummies of Ancient Egypt, ed. A. Rosalie David and Eddie Tapp (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), 10; I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, 3rd. ed. (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1985), 116, 125, 133, 169, 176-77, 187-88, 206-7, 213, 227-230; Raymond 0. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews, rev. ed. (London: British Museum Publications, 1985), 190-92; Janine Bourriau, Pharaohs and Mortals: Egyptian Art in the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 95-97; UAK 15-16.

5W. M. Flinders Petrie and J. E. Quibell, Nagada and Ballas (London: Quaritch, 1896), 60.

6Hermann Junker, Giza I (Wien and Leipzig: Holder-Picher- Tempsky, 1934-38), 49, 51-54, 125.

7Actually, there have been other works by better minds which have discussed the evidence of the canopic jars into the same general schema, notably: GEA; Hugh Nibley, "Facsimile No. 1, by the Figures," IE (April 1969): 82-87; (Sept. 1969): 85-89; Edward Brovarski, Canopic Jars, vol. 1 of Museum of Fine Arts Boston, CAA

3

forth the ancient tale, so far as I know it."

"These are the Generations ..."

Of the Sons of Horus—named Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef and

Qebehsenuef8—the Book of the Dead relates, "their father is

Horus; their mother is Isis."9 Speculation on the meanings of

their names has been both plentiful and creative. The names might

have meant something like "the one on the throne" (Im-st) , "the hidden one" (Hp33),10 "Praiser of his mother" (Dw3-mwt-f),11 and

"Purifier of his brethren" (Qbh-snw-f) ,12 but these are just

guesses. Whatever the names might have originally meant, the

Egyptians themselves provided abundant folk etymologies and puns

off the names of the Sons of Horus: Imseti—thought to be

(Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 1978), 1-2; UAK 15-17; Peter Munro, "Bemerkungen zum Gestaltwandel und Ursprung der Horuskinder," Fs. Mus. Berlin, 195-204, the last came to my attention too late to contribute to this paper.

8PT 541 (§1333); 580 (§1548) . The order given is the standard one variations in order are known but infrequent, the order is discussed in GEA 219.

9BD 112:6; cf. CT 157; Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 150.

100n the spelling throughout the Pyramid Texts which in Sethe's copy looks like Hp33, see GEA 221. For this spelling in the CT; see Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargtexten, 151. This spelling reappears in the Saite period on the canopic jar of Naseherenre, CCG 4150 in RAC, 107; and CCG 4180 (Dynasty 22-25?), in RAC, 130.

11 GEA 224.

12Ibid., 224.

4originally feminine13—has been connected with "to present,"14 15

"to incenerate,1,15 "liver,"16 imst "dill or anise".17 Hapi has

been connected with "to run,"18 "oar,"19 "to hide,"20

"drake."21 Duamutef has been connected with "to praise,"22 "to

bring dawn".23 Qebhsenuef has been connected with "to

refresh,"24 and "to purify,"25 "to travel."26

13Imseti was "urspriinglich eine weibliche Gottheit, meist mannlich dargesellt;" UAK 16.

14ms, CT 520.

15s3m, CIT XIX.

texts cited in AEO, 2:245*-49*.

GE A 222.

18hpw, CT 521.

19hpt, CT 400.

20h3p, CIT XIX.

21hip, GEA 221-22.

22dw3, CT 522.

23Sdw3, CIT XIX.

24sgbb, CT 523.

25qbh, CT 523.

26sgd, CIT XIX.

27Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, 224.

If we have not power to ask their names, we also know but

little about their cults. Hornung has observed that specific cult centers came later than the universal gods;27 the sons of Horus

are assigned specific cult centers after the Middle Kingdom:

5Imsety and Hapy are associated with the cult center at Pe,28 while

Duamutef and Qebhsenuef are associated with the cult center of

Hieraconpolis (Nekhen).29 All of the Sons of Horus are associated

with a mystery cult30 which sacrifices pigs but prohibits those

eating pig to participate.31 Initiations took place on the

festival of the new moon when offerings were made to various dieties including the Sons of Horus.32 In Ptolemaic times,33

the sons of Horus are associated with Medinet Habu34 and the

mystery cults there.35

28For the MK, see CT 157; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151; for later, see BD 112.

29For the MK: CT 158; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151. For later: BD 113.

30The use of the term "mystery cult" here accords with Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1987); for definitions see pp. 1-11. How many of these there were in Egypt is beyond the scope of this paper.

31CT 157-58. For further identification with offering rituals see Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151. The cult receives further mention in BD 99, 112-13. Other requirements of this cult mentioned in BD 151 are prohibition from goats, fish or women; cf. Manetho fragment 81, in Aelian, De Natura Animalium X.16; Herodotus, Historiae II.42.2. This sort of phenomenon is the subject of Walter Burkert, Homo Necans, 83-134.

32BD 141-42.

33Fayza Mohammed Hussein Haikal, Two Hieratic Funerary Papyri of Nesmin, 2 vols., vols. 14-15 of BA (Bruxelles: FERE, 1970-72), 1:16-17.

34Papyrus BM 10209, 4:13-14, in Haikal, Two Hieratic Funerary Papyri of Nesmin, 1:40; 2:21, 43 n. 147.

35The mysteries are brought up in Papyrus BM 10209, 4:11-15, in Haikal, Two Hieratic Funerary Papyri of Nesmin, 1:40; 2:21. More connections may be seen in BD 161. The purpose is deification: di n=k irt-Hr ip tw msw-Hr ntr; Papyrus BM 10209, 5:1-3; and the Amenirtas inscription, pp. 173-77, in Haikal, Two Hieratic Funerary

6The Sons of Horus almost always act as a unit,36 solo

appearences being uncommon.37 At least by the late period the

Sons of Horus might be abbreviated by only mentioning the first one or two of them.38 The Sons of Horus have no mythology.

Papyri of Nesmin, 1:40; 2:21; cf. Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, 41.

36GEA 218, 224.

37The vast damage of the one Pyramid Text where Duamutef only is mentioned justifies regarding this passage as a mere fluke of preservation; PT 691 (§2135) , in Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, supplement (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), 56. In the Coffin Texts, Imsety is associated with a certain Gishgish, the keeper of the gate (CT 405; cf. GEA 224; but Faulkner notes that "'Imsety' is a corruption of imhty." Faulkner, Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, 2:56.), while Hapy alone is associated with the oars of the ferry boat (CT 400) , probably from association with hpt, "oar".

38Petosiris 80:52, 60, in Gustav Lefebvre, Le Tombeau dePetosiris, 3 vols. (Caire: IFAO, 1923-24), 2:52. In the twenty- first Dynasty "there is a lack of concern about using the full group of four. Two or three only may be used." So Beatrice L. Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt in the Late Period: The Twenty- first Dynasty, vol. 13 of Religion and Society (The Hague: Mouton, 1979), 114.

39Alan H. Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford :Oxford University Press, 1961), 53.

The Canopic Connection

The early modern Egyptologists, lighting by lamps the way to

the dusty dead, could hardly help but notice the ubiquitous canopic

jars and figurines both depicted on and found in the tombs, "the

overwhelmingly funerary character of most of the finds" being

because nine-tenths of all Egyptian excavations have been conducted in the tombs.39 Identifying the jars with the Greek legends of

7

Canopus, the helmsman of Menelaeus,40 with whom an Egyptian woman

fell in love,41 and whom fiery flying serpents42 bit so that he

died43 and was buried on an island in the delta named after

him44 where Egyptians are said to have deified him worshipping him

in the image of a large clay jar bearing his shape,45 early

Egyptologists gave the epithet "canopic" to those jars which often

contained the internal organs of the deceased, a name which has

4°kybernetos, gubernator; Conon Mythographus, Fabulae 8; Aelius Aristides, Orationes 36.108-9; Epiphanius, Anacorat. 106; Rufinus, HE XI.26; Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae XIV.3 (28); Nicander, Theriaca 312-13.

41Conon Mythographus, Fabulae 8; Epiphanius, Anacorat. 106.

42Such as were supposed to be common in Egypt at the time, Numbers 21:4-9; Herodotus, Historiae 11.75; Rufinus, HE XI.26.

43Rufinus, HE XI.26.

44Conon Mythographus, Fabulae 8; Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae XIV.3(28); Dionysius "Periegetes," Periegesis 11-13; Tacitus, Annales 11.60.

45Rufinus, HE XI. 26; Georgius Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium 1.570.9-16. In later times he had a large and flourishing cult at Alexandria (Epiphanius, Anacorat. 106; Rufinus, HE XI.26), as well as his own temple (Flavius Philostratus, Vitae Sophistarum II.7; Dionysius "Periegetes," Periegesis 11-13; Eunapius, Vitae Sophistarum 41) , until the cult was destroyed by Theophilus (Rufinus, HE IX.26; Eunapius, Vitae Sophistarum 41-42). In all fairness to the earlier Greeks, it must be said that the earliest informant to this particular myth (Conon mythographus) was born at the turn of the era, long after Menelaus and the Pharaohs (see "Conon," in N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd. ed. [Oxford: Clarendon, 1970], 278). That the Canopus legend refers to the worship of a pottery jar containing Nile water in the city Canopus; see Hanna Philipp, Mira et Magica (Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 1986), 34, 123; Tafel 3 (Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin-Charlottenburg 9790, 2nd cnetury A.D.), 54 (ibid 9791, Mediaeval).

8stuck ever since.46 The ancient Egyptians called them qbw n wt

"mummy jars".47

46This is generally considered a misnomer; see David, "Introduction", 10; Lurker, Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 38; A General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1964), 147; AAE, 221.

47Jac. J. Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 243. The mention in Papyrus Berlin 10485 of buying 3 canopic jars (ibid., and n. 180) is significant because complete sets of four canopic jars are the exception rather than the rule. Only 2 attestations of this term are known to this author. The translation of wt as mummy will be discussed later.

48Junker, Giza II, 49, 125; Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, 125; GEA 216.

49Alan Jefferey Spencer, Death in Ancient Egypt (Harmonds- worth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982), 35-36; Barbara Adams, Predynas- tic Egypt, 64; GEA 216.

50Junker, Giza II 49, 51-54, 125; Barbara Adams, Egyptian Mummies, vol. 1 of SE (Aylesbury: Shire Publications, 1984), 13- 14.

The earliest known canopic container—a square box with four

compartments rather than a jar—Reisner discovered in the tomb of Hetepheres, a Fourth Dyanasty queen buried at Giza.48 Athough

before the Fourth Dynasty the Egyptians made no attempt to remove the viscera from the deceased during mummification,49 during that

dynasty they began to eviscerate the dead placing packets con-I

taining the internal organs in square niches carved into ' the corners of the tombs.50 Junker speculated that this first attempt

to preserve the viscerial organs in natron in their own separate

box resulted from insufficient time to hew the tomb out

9

completely.51 This innovation soon became standard practice as

use of canopic jars began to be widespread during the Fifth

Dynasty.52

51Junker, Giza II, 49, 51-54, 125. Michael Lyon points out to me that this can be argued only if we assume that work on the tomb did not begin until the death of the individual which is very unlikely.

52GEA 217, without any inscription, ibid., 224; Spencer, Death in Ancient Egypt, 36-37; Eva Martin-Pardey, EingeweidegefaBe, Lieferung 5 of Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, CAA (Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 1980), nos. 2154 (IVth Dynasty), 14-15, 2414-15, 2418- 21, 2433-36, 2633, 2635-38, 2690, 3103-6, 3208-11, 3229-34, 3244- 46, 3248-51, 3848/1-4, 3926-27; Junker, Giza II, 125; Giza III, 8, 15, 150, 214, Tafeln IXb, Xlla. The practice of evisceration was not universal, see Adams, Egyptian Mummies, 15-16.

53Canopic jars are generally recognizable because "the shape of the usual canopic jar was seldom used for pottery or bronze vessels." Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period, 412.

54Spencer, Death in Ancient Egypt, 36-37; Martin-Pardey, EingeweidegefaBe, nos. 14-15, 2154, 2414-15, 2418-21, 2433-36, 2633, 2635-38, 2690, 3103-6, 3208-11, 3229-34, 3244-46, 3248-51, 3848/1-4, 3926-27; Junker, Giza III, Tafeln IXb, Xlla; Sethe, "Zur Geschichte der Einbalsamierung," 217.

55CCG 5020, in RAC, 199 and CCG 5022, in RAC, 400.

Nevertheless, though the canopic jar became widely used in the

funerary equipment, no evidence exists to connect it with the Sons

of Horus until the First Intermediate Period. The earliest canopic jars, when not boxes, were plain, though uniquely shaped,53 jars

unadorned by either dedicatory inscriptions, or stoppers in the

shapes of either men or animals (Figure l),54 though Pepi Il's

canopic jars have his own name and titles on them.55 During the

First Intermediate Period, in a tomb dating from Dynasties 9-10,

the first canopic jars with human-headed lids and with inscriptions

commending the care of each separate organ to a different one of

10

the Sons of Horus56 appear, although the identification of the

Sons of Horus with the canopic jars "was not complete until Dynasty

12,”57 as even in the Middle Kingdom plain stoppers are still used

sometimes.58

56Brovarski, Canopic Jars, 1. The oldest canopic jars in the Turin Museum are nos. 19068-69, both of which are Xllth Dynasty and have human heads; see Claudia Dolzani, Vasi Canopi, 2nd series, vol. 4 of Catologo del Museo Egizo di Torino (Milano: Cisalpino- Golaconda, 1982), 43-44. Baines and Malek (AAE, 221) date this innovation to the Middle Kingdom.

57Brovarski, Canopic Jars, 2.

58CCG 4978-79, 4986-88, 4998-5001, in RAC, 383-90.

590ne debatable passage is PT 573 (§§1482-83), in Raymond 0. Faulkner, Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 228; cf. the translation in AEL, 1:49-50. The translation "jar-stands" in Faulkner is tentative, but for Lichtheim it is fait accompli. But this would be the only place where hnty ever meant "jar-stands". The determinative indicates that this is some sort of structure. PT 573 (§§1482-83) should read "Commend N to this Great and noble one . . . to establish his shrine (or booth) upon the land for N is one of these four gods: Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef." On the reading of hnty here, cf. hntt, in Patricia Spencer, The Egyptian Temple: A Lexicographicial Study (London: Kegan Paul, 1984), 12; the passages discussed in Alan H. Gardiner, TheAdmonitions of an Egyptian Sage from a Heiratic Papyrus in Leiden (Pap. Leiden 344 Recto) (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909), 46-47 might also be applicable here; Translate Admonitions of Ipuwer 6:5-7 as "The writings of the sacred shrine have been remove, those things which were secret have been divulged! The rituals are divulged and the performances and embraces are profaned becaused they are mentioned by men!"

60PT 215 (§149); cf. 688 (§§2078-79).

The Pyramid Texts also make no connection between the Sons of

Horus and the canopic jars.59 The Pyramid Texts do say that the

Sons of Horus represent parts of the body but therein the king is

told, "Thy hand is Hapy and Duamutef; . . . thy two feet are Imsety and Qebhsenuef,"60 an association which remains through the Coffin

11

Texts of the Middle Kingdom.61

61CT 761; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151.

62The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys 10, in AEL, 3:120, see note 11 on page 121. Cf. the unique inscription of CCG 4322 (Dyn. 20?), in RAC, 218-19: dd mdw in Hpi ii=i m s3 hcw hr irt-t m3c-hrw cm=k ib k3 ntt k3 n pr st=f rn st3 m-b3h ntrw st3=k ntrw dw3t pr3y=k r hrw snfw=k "Words said by Hapi: I have come as a protector of members making thee justified that thou mayest know the heart of the ka whose secret name in the presence of the gods of the Duat is 'Embrace-of-the-house-of-his-throne', that thou mayest ascend to heaven, that thou mayest be made to breathe."

63BD 17:38-39, in Lepsius, Todtenbuch der Agypter, Plate VIII; Hermann Grapow, Religiose Urkunden = Urk 5 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1915-17), 40-47; A. W. Shorter, Copies of the Book PR(T)-M-HRW, vol. 1 of Catologue of Egyptian Religious Papyri in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1938), 104.

64or belly, ht. BD 113:6; cf. BD 137A.

65Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 120.

During the New Kingdom the texts depict the Sons of Horus in

their classical function of guarding the deceased and protecting

the internal organs as Canopic Jars. In the Lamentations of Isis

and Nephthys we read, "The Sons of Horus guard your body, and daily bless your ka. "62 The Book of the Dead states, "Anubis has

assigned them to protect the burial of Osiris."63 Elsewhere,

Horus asks the Sons of Horus be "with me so that they might protect my body."64 In the Twenty-First Dynasty, canopic jars are

rare.65 But in Dynasties 22-25 the canopic jars did not contain

the internal organs of the deceased but were only dummy jars having

only a minimal cavity or no cavity at all (the Germans call these

12"Scheinkanopen"),66 the internal organs were generally repacked

into the abdominal cavity of the mummy with figurines of the sons of Horus.67 From the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic

Period, the practice of embalming the viscera in canopic jars

resumed,68 and the deceased grasped the faience amulets of the

Sons of Horus in his hands along with the winged heart scarab.69

During the Roman Period Sheinkanopen were again the rule.70

66Brovarski, Canopic Jars, 3-4. The same situation appears in Dynasty 5 where the canopic jars of Nebty-kha-merer "wohl nie etwas enthalten hat;" but this may be because "das Grab der Prinzessin Nebti-chac-merer ist . . . nie benutzt worden;" Borchardt, Das Grabdenkmal der Konigs Ne-User-Rec, 131, 31.

67Warren R. Dawson and P. H. K. Gray, Mummies and Human Remains, vol. 1 of Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum (London: British Museum 1968), xii-xiii. The process begins in Dynasty 21; Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 114.

68Ibid.

69Bietak and Reiser-Haslauer, Grab des cAnch-Hor II, 211-12, 203, Tafel 135. Unfortunately though we have molds for other faience figures, we have none for the sons of Horus; see Christian Hermann, Formen fur agyptische Fayencen: Katalog der Sammlung des Biblischen Instituts der Universitat Freiburg Schweiz und einer Privatsammlung, vol. 60 of OBO (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1985), vii-viii, et passim.

70Dawson and Gray, Mummies and Human Remains, xiii.

11RAC 6 et passim.

Since the Sons of Horus guard the canopic jars which contain

the viscera of the deceased, it might be useful to know which Son

of Horus protected what internal organ, and some sources even

enumerate such. Assembling the evidence, a difficult task,

presents another picture. To learn that a canopic jar is "empty"71 is only slightly more useful than discovering that it

13

contains "mummified human entrails, wrapped in linen."72 So much

we had assumed. But if the catalogues of canopic jars do not

determine the contents, it is because viscera "are very difficult

to distinguish in a shrunken, desiccated state."73 Additionally

studies of the organs in the canopic jars belie the standard

simplified correlations.74 The confusion in the canopic jars is

mirrored by the turmoil in the literary sources where Imseti might

be identified with the spleen, or liver; Hapi, with the liver, the

lungs, or the spleen; Duamutef, with the lungs, the liver, the

heart, or "the other (p3 ky)"; and Qebhsenuef, with the intestines

(mhtw, imy-ht), or the belly (ht);75 or they might be assigned to

different divinities entirely.76 77 Gardiner, who assembled the

literary evidence, concluded that "there is only one point in which

all seven texts are in perfect agreement, namely that mhtw (var.

imy-ht, dem. mht) occupies the last place, which is that belonging to Kebhsnewef when ever the sons of Horus are mentioned.1,77 And

in general, "the archaeological evidence [is] not in accord with

72Ibid., 10 et passim. This is one of the better sources.

13AEO, 2:250*.

74George Elliot Smith, cited in AEO, 2:248*, noting that "even here there was some inconsistency." Goff is more emphatic: "Of the four divinities none is systematically associated with a particular organ" (Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 114). She notes as an example, that an image of Hapy is placed with the intestines in the mummy of Djedptahiuefankh, and with the liver in that of Tausertempernesu (ibid., 115).

15AEO 2:245-47*.

16AEO 2:247*.

77Ibid., 2:247*.

14

the philological."78

78Ibid., 2:250*.

79The inscriptions leave no question about the role of the goddesses as protectors of the Sons of Horus. There is no basis for the assertion that the Sons of Horus were married to the goddesses; Wiliam MacQuitty, Abu Simbel (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1965) , 176. The debate over whether the canopic jars represent the protective goddesses (GEA 226-30; cf. UAK 15-16) or the Sons of Horus (Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 139) need not concern us here; the evidence weighs against Sethe except at certain time periods where it is ambiguous.

80Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, 1:456; Wildung and Grimm, Gotter-Pharaonen, #58.

81CIT XIX.

"The Soft Sway of (Indefinable Omnipotence

O'er our Strong Male-stuff"

Still, the gruesome contents of the canopic jars, dead and

done, survive through the woman-nature protected by various goddesses.79 The general scheme80 has perhaps been most clearly

expressed in the inscriptions found on canopic jars of the 26th

Dynasty:

Words spoken by Isis: I incenerate (s3m) the enemies that I might protect Imseti who is in me. The protection ofOsiris N is the protection of Imseti, for Osiris N is Imseti.

Words spoken by Nephthys: I shall hide (h3p) the secret that I might watch over Hapi who is in me. The protection of Osiris N is the protection of Hapi, for Osiris N is Hapi.

Words spoken by Neith: I bring dawn (sdw3) and dusk every day while guarding Duamutef who is in me. The protec­tion of Osiris N is the protection of Duamutef, for Osiris N is Duamutef.

Words spoken by Serqet to your ka: I cause my protection to travel (sgd) every day while guarding Qebhsenuef who is in me. The protection of Osiris N is the protection of Qebehsenuef, for Osiris N is Qebehsenuef.81

15The general patterns, however, "not seldom" have exceptions,82 as

Q2GEA 226 n. 61.

83Dynasty 12: CCG 4006, in RAC, 3-4. Dynasty 13: CCG 4007, in ibid., 4-5; CCG 4019, in ibid., 11-12. Dynasty 18: CCG 4094, in ibid., 59-60. Dynasty 26: WKMAS 9066, in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen II, 95-99; CCG 4098, in RAC, 63; CCG 4102, in ibid., 66-67.

84CCG 4518 (Dynasty 18), in RAC, 287; CCG 4085 (Dynasty 19), in ibid., 52-53.

85CCG 4727 (Dynasty 13), in RAC, 359-60; CCG 4326 (Dynasty 19), in ibid., 221-22.

86CCG 4728 (Dynasty 13), in RAC, 360-61.

87Dynasty 12: CCG 4005, in RAC, 3. Dynasty 13: CCG 4008, in ibid., 5-6; CCG 4020, in ibid., 12-13. Dyansty 18: CCG 4095, in ibid., 60-61. Dyansty 26: CCG 4099, in ibid., 64; CCG 4103, in ibid., 67-68.

88CCG 4733 (Dynasty 12), in RAC, 366-68; CCG 4729 (Dyansty 13), in ibid., 361.

89Dynasty 12: CCG 4048, in RAC, 28-32, Plate LXXXI; use the plate because the text on pp. 30-31 is incorrect. Dynasty 13: CCG 4009, in ibid., 6; CCG 4021, in ibid., 13. Dynasty 18: CCG 4096, in ibid., 61-62. Dynasty 26: CCG 4100, in ibid., 65; CCG 4104, in ibid., 68-69.

90CCG 4519 (Dynasty 18), in RAC, 288.

91CCG 4740 (MK), in RAC, 377-81; CCG 4980 (MK), in ibid., 384.

92CCG 4196 (Dynasty 13), in RAC, 142-43; CCG 4730 (Dynasty 13), in ibid., 361; CCG 4325 (Dynasty 19), in ibid., 231.

93Dynasty 12: CCG 4048, in RAC, Plate LXXXI, pp. 28-32.Dynasty 13: CCG 4010, in ibid., 6-7; CCG 4022, in ibid., 13-14.Dynasty 18: CCG 4097, in ibid., 62. Dynasty 26: WKMAS 9088, inReiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen II, 100-2; CCG 4101, in RAC, 65-66;

the following chart illustrates (s = standard; x = exception):

Guardian\Son of Horus Imseti

Isis s83Nephthys x86Neith x88Serqet

Hapi Duamutef QebehsenuefX84 X85s87s89 X90X91 X92 s93 * * *

16Great Ennead (psdt-c3t) X94

Great Ennead (psdt-wrt) x95Geb and Hnty-hty X96 X97

Shu X98

Tefnut x"Geb X100

Nut X101 X102

Sendjet x103Rnnwrt x104

106Bietak und Reiser-Haslauer, Das Grab des 'Anch-Hor II, 207 and Tafel 139; cf. CCG 4735 (undated), in RAC, 369-71; CCG 5003 (Dynasty 18 cat's coffin), in ibid., 392-94.

In the tomb of Ramses VI the 7th gate of the Book of the Night, Sia

and Isis go with Duamutef, Qebhsenuef and Nephthys, while Serket,

Hapi, Imseti, Tefnut and Sendet go together.105 In Dynasty 26,

Imsety and Duamutef could go with Isis while Hapy and Qebhsenuef go with Nephthys.106 Some of the odder pairings occur side by side

CCG 4105, in ibid., 69-70.

94ccg 4048 (Dynasty 12), in RAC, Plate LXXXI, pp. 28-32.

95ccg 4048 (Dynasty 12) , in RAC, Plate LXXXI, pp. 28-32.

96ccg 4049 (Dynasty 12) , in RAC, 32-33.

97ccg 4049 (Dynasty 12), in RAC, 32-33.

98ccg 4981 (MK), in RAC, 384-85.

"CCG 4981 (MK), in RAC, 384-85.

100CCG 4981 (MK), in RAC, 384-85 •

101CCG 4740 (MK), in RAC, 377-81; CCG 4980 (MK) , in ibid., 384.

102ccg 4981 (MK), in RAC, 384-85 •

103ccg 4740 (MK), in RAC, 377-81; CCG 4980 (MK) , in ibid., 384.

104ccg 4740 (MK), in RAC, 377-81; CCG 4980 (MK) / in ibid., 384.

105Alexandre Piankoff, Le Livre du jour et de la nuit, vol. 13 of BdE (Caire: IFAO, 1942), 62.

17

with the standard ones.107 108

107E.g. the canopic jars of hmn-htp (CCG 4727-30, in RAC, 359- 61) as opposed to his canopic chest (CCG 4731, in ibid., 362-64); see also, CCG 4980 (MK), in ibid., 384.

108"Historians often do not see any other interpretation which fits the facts as well as their own does; but if we consider that even in the field of physics, with its larger and more reliable stock of facts, new crucial experiments are needed again and again because the old ones are all keeping with both of two competing and incompatible theories, . . . then we shall give up the naive belief that any definite set of historical records can ever be interpreted in one way only." Karl R. Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies, 2 vols. (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 2:266.

109Emery, Archaic Egypt, 145, 134-39; Edwards, Pyramids of Egypt, 32.

110Ahmed M. Mousa and Hartwig Altenmiiller, The Tomb of Nefer and Ka-Hay, vol. 5 of AV (Mainz am Rhein: Von Zabern, 1971), 43.

111The Sons of Horus suddenly being included in four percent of the offering formulae, traces of them also appear of the formula in the eleventh dynasty; Winfried Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der altagyptischen Opferformel, Heft 24 of AF (Gluckstadt: Augustin, 1968), 227.

"After the Manner of the Egyptians"

Although several inscriptions indicate that the protection of

the internal organs is one purpose of the canopic jars, there can

be other purposes as well. Predynastic burials were usually

filled with offerings for the deceased.109 In the Old Kingdom

pottery jars in the burial shaft "were probably used in the

offerings during the funeral rites."110 During Dynasties 9-10,

when the canopic jars began to be associated with the Sons of

Horus, the Sons of Horus also start appearing in htp-di-niswt

offering formulae.111 The inscriptions on the first appearance

of the Sons of Horus on canopic jars are simply the name of the

18

individual diety to which each organ was dedicated.112 A canopic

jar of K3j from the eleventh dynasty contains a htp-di-niswt

offering formula to Imseti;113 and the cases for the canopic jars

are generally inscribed with offering formulae.114 Thus during

the First Intermediate Period, the Egyptians might have viewed the

canopic jars as offerings to the Sons of Horus.

112GEA 224-25, 1*.

113Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der altagyptischen Opferformel, 43, citing William C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, 2 vols. (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1953-57), 1:322. Hayes indicates that this one was part of a complete set but there is only a picture of the one. The inscription reads: htpt di niswt htp Imsti prt-hrw n imy-r3 ss K3y rn[...]. Other jars with htp-di-nswt formulae are WKMAS 3161, 3562, 3563, 3564 (all 22nd Dynasty, Osorkon II), in Elfriede Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen I, Liefung 2 of Kuns this tori sches Museum Wien: Agyptisch-orientalishche Sammlung, in the series CAA (Mainz am Rhein: Von Zabern, 1989) . Sethe claims that this formula does not appear until at least the twenty- first dynasty; GEA 9*.

114UAK 66-67.

115The rite of the red ox was practiced until late times in Egypt; see Mariette, Denderah, 4:Pl. 85b. Cf. The rite of the red cow among the Israelites; Numbers 19:1-10; see also David P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1987), 131, 169-72, 185 n. 38, 216-17, 221-22. The Red Cow is used to purify those contaminated by corpses.

116imyt mph is a hapax legomenon; for discussion on the meaning of the word see Faulkner, Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 235; GEA 217; Hildegard von Deines and Wolfhart Westendorf, Worterbuch der medizinischen Teste, 2 vols., Band 7 of Grundriss der Medizin der

The association of the canopic jars with the Sons of Horus

might have been effected about by a change in understanding of one of the Pyramid Texts. In the ritual offering of the red bull115

representing the enemy, various gods are offered various parts of

the slain bull, "his intestines116 are for the these four gods,

19

the sons of Horus whom he loves: Hapi, Imseti, Duamutef, and

Qebehsenuef."117 During the First Intermediate Period that this

cattle slaughtering ritual could possibly have been taken as applying to the "cattle of the gods":118 men. Since the inter­

nal organs were already being removed during mummification, it

would be a simple matter to offer this to the Sons of Horus.119

alten Agypter (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1961), 1:273-81. Cf. mnpht (Wb 2:79), ph (Ibid., 1:533), phwy (Ibid., 1:535), and nphw (Ibid., 2:249). The root of all these words is probably nphw which, as well as being the "cow's udder" is also a "part of the human abdomen (in the region of the genetaiia) of both men and women: perhaps the groin." The context of the cattle parts mentioned in the Pyramid Text and the possible etymology of the word suggest that the imyt mph were the the exta.

117PT 580 (§§1546-50); Sethe (GEA 217) sees this as the origin of the entrusting of the entrails to the Sons of Horus. See also Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargtexten, 151. The entire PT 580 (§§1543-50) reads: "0 slayer of my father who smote one greater than himself, thou hast slain my father; thou hast smitten one greater than thyself. 0 my father Osiris, for thee have I slain him who slew thee like an ox. I have smitten him who smote thee for thee like a wild bull. I have broken up him who broke thee up for thee like a long-horned bull, after whom thou wast like a subjected bull, and he who racked thee is racked animal himself. He who shot thee a bull which has been shot. He who assaulted thee is a ox. I have cut off his head; I have cut off his tail; I have cut off his hand; I have cut off his feet. His upper foreleg is for Kheperi; his lower foreleg is for Atum, the father of the gods. His haunches are for Shu and Tefnut; His jaws are for Geb and Nut. His thighs are for Isis and Nephthys; calves are for Khenty-irty and Herty. His back is for Neith and Serqet; his front is for Sekhmet the great. His exta are for these four gods, the sons of Horus whom he loves: Hapi, Imseti, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef. His head, tail, hands and feet are for Anubis and Osiris Khenty- amentiu. What the gods have left are for the Souls of Nekhen and Pe. I have partaken that we may partake of the red bull in order to traverse the lake which Horus made for his father."

118"The Instruction of Merikare," 131, in AEL, 1:106.

119A related text from the Ptolemaic Period has the human (or divine) enemy sacrificed and his internal organs offered to Bast; see Das Buch von der Abwehr des Bosen, line 53, in Siegfried Schott, Urkunden des mythologischen Inhalts, = Urk. 6 of (Leipzig:

20

This condition obtained to some extent during the Middle

Kingdom. Some canopic jars contain the inscription: "Thou art

revered before Imseti [or another Son of Horus], inasmuch as I [the god] am with thee."120 Later canopic jars were often incribed

with the following: "Oh Isis [or another goddess], watch over both

Imseti [or another Son of Horus] who is with thee, and NN who is revered by Imseti."121

Hinrichs, 1929), 83.

120CIT Ila.

121CIT III and IV, discussed on pp. 226-27. The most synonymus meanings of the prepostitions (m and hr) should be taken, thus: "with"; See Alan H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 3rd. ed. (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1957), 124-25, 128, §§162.7a, 167. At latter times, this interchange does not take place and m is the only prepostion used.

122Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der altagyptischen Opferformel, 227-28; BD 141. The Sons of Horus are betimes depicted on the stele but not mentioned in the inscription, as on that of Tausirdinesnakht (T3-Wsir-di-n-s-nht) , Parma Musueum 180, in CEMAP 110-12, Tav. XXV and Inaros (Ir.t.Hr-r-w), Parma Museum 181, in ibid., 112-14, Tav. XXVI. Some Inscriptions in Glyptotheque ny Carlsberg 635, 894 in Otto Koefoed-Peterson, Recuiel des inscrip­tions hieroglyphiques de la Glyptotheque ny Carlsberg, vol. 6 of BA (Bruxelles: FERE, 1936), 65-67.

123Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der altagyptischen Opferformel, 227-28.

During later periods, when offerings to the Sons of Horus are again attested,122 there are other indications that the person

mummified was considered to have undergone a symbolic sacrificial

death and that the viscera were considered to be offerings to the

Sons of Horus. In the Opening of the Mouth ceremonies of the the

eighteenth dynasty, when the Sons of Horus recieve offerings for the first time since the First Intermediate Period,123 the

21

preists who will later lug the guts into the neighbor room attack the priest124 who, preparing to mummify the body, first makes a

slit into the belly to remove the viscera, as a murderer.125 It

was during the eighteenth dyansty, according to Manetho, that human sacrifice ceased in Egypt,126 although earlier human sacrifice

(Figure 3) had been supposed to be a standard practice.127

Herodotus, at a still later time, in describing mummification,

depicts the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, where first the nose is

touched "with an iron hook" and "then after splitting the side of

the belly with a sharp Ethiopean stone, they draw out from it all the entrails."128 Afterwards other priests "four men with the

names of <the children> of Horus written on their upper arms" wrap the deceased in "red linen anointed with prime Libyan oil."129

In the Twenty-First Dynasty, the incision was covered with lotus

124This is different from the Pyrmaid Texts where the Sons of Horus act as priests in the rite of Opening of the Mount. PT 670 (§1983); cf. GEA 217. The text is damaged here. See also Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 140 citing PT §§1983, 734, 1333, 552, 149.

1250pening of the Mouth, scenes 13, 15, in Eberhard Otto, Das agyptische Mundoffnungsritual, 2 vols., Band 3 of AA (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1960), 1:33-35, 37-38; 2:63-67; Diodorus Siculus,Biblotheke historike 1.91 (102); Dorothy J. Thompson, Memphis Under the Ptolemies (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988), 155-56.

126Manetho, fragment 85, in Porphyrius, De Abstinentia 11.55.

Manetho, fragment 86, in Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 73.128Herodotus, Historiae II.86.3-4; cf. Diodorus Siculus,

Bibliotheke Historike 1.91 (102).129BD 137A.

22

and leaf-shaped plates showing the wd3t-eye and the sons of

Horus.130 Whether or not this sort of human sacrifice took place

or not would be difficult to detect at best because mummification is the sacrifice.131 The removal of the organs is characteristic

only of Herodotus7 first class mummification,132 the same one

which those whom a crocodile killed, or who drowned in the Nile were required to receive at the hands of the priests.133 Those

whose life the gods had taken, the priests could offer in the

temple post mortem.134

130Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 114, and plate 27, figure 48; also citing Montet, Psousenes, p. 148 No 527, p. 1 CXII. The plate shown is from the mummy of Henuttawy.

131There is some sort of human sacrifice attested in Egyptian records, some of which is by burning, and others by "a death penalty in ritual disguise." Most of these penalties are inflicted for cultic crimes; and all the references are before the beginning of the New Kingdom which agrees with Manetho's statement. See Anthony Leahy, "A Protective Measure at Abydos in the Thirteenth Dynasty," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 75 (1989): 41-60; Harco Willems, "Crime, Cult and Capital Punishment (Mocalla Inscription 8)," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 (1990): 27-54, quote from p. 34.

132Herodotus, Historiae 11.86-87.

133Herodotus, Historiae 11.90.

134Herodotus, Historiae 11.90.1.

135Winifred Needier, An Egyptian Funerary Bed of the Homan Period in the Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Ontario Museum Occasional Paper 6 (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1963), 4-7. Needier can find "no beds in the tomb pictures of the Middle Kingdom which can be definitely indentified as beds of daily life;" ibid., 5.

This sacrificial embalming takes place on a lion-shaped

bedstead,135 called an 3tt136 (Late Egyptian ytit)137

23

examples of which are thought to date back to the Third Dynasty at

the time of Djoser.136 137 138 Even though the lion couch was a regular,

required part of the funerary equipment,139 only four couches

have survived,140 being normally destroyed after use due to their

impurity.141 In lion couch scenes, as Westendorf has shown, the

136Needler, Egyptian Funerary Bed of the Roman Period, 4; confirmed by the labels on the insciptions in Mariette, Denderah, 4:P1. 70-71, esp. 90.

137Jac. J. Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period, 239-40, with hesitation.

138Wildung and Grimm, Gotter-Pharaonen, #3. Wildung reports that this lion couch was used for embalming in the Third Dynasty, though embalming is normally thought to have started in the Fourth Dynasty. More cautious are Mohammed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian, The Egyptian Museum Cairo Official Catelogue (Mainz amd Rhein: Von Zabern, 1987), #18, who note that the Djoser Complex corridor 42 has a lion altar and suggest that the objects in question are sacrificial altars. Cf. Needier, Egyptian Funerary Bed of the Roman Period, 4. Jaromir Malek and D. N. E. Magee, "A Group of Coffins Found at Northern Saqqara," BSEG 9-10 (1984-85): 170-71 suggest that these lion couches belong to the Late Period and were used in animal mummification.

139See Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period, 239- 42.

140They are the Akhmim (now in Cairo), Berlin, Edinburgh and Toronto couches; see Needier, Egyptian Funerary Bed of the Roman Period, 4, 7. There is also a golden lion couch in Tutankhamun's tomb.

141Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period, 240. The blood defiles the sanctuary according to Muhammed and Sourouzain, Egyptian Museum Cairo, #18. Cf. Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 107-10, 115-31, 147-59, 219, 245. Habachi's objections in Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period, 240 n. 169, that the alabaster lion couches were not disposed of can be met with by noting that alabaster, being stone con be purified while the wooden lion couches would have to be destroyed, there being no way to remove the blood stains from the porous wood; cf. Wright, Disposal of Impurity, 93-113.

24

bier equates with Nut142 who spreads herself over the Sons of

Horus.143 Thus the placing of the canopic jars under the bier

can represent the supports of heaven and the Sons of Horus as wind gods can become syncretized with the god Thoth as a wind god.144

The situation goes back to the Middle Egyptian Coffin Texts where it is described rather than depicted.145 Lion couch scenes

"appear for the first time in the 18th Dynasty, and become very

popular for tomb walls in the 19th and for painted coffins

cartonnage, shrouds, stelae, etc., in Late Dynastic and Greek and Roman times."146 During the New Kingdom the Sons of Horus fre­

quently appear in lion couch scenes.147 In the Late Period not

only are the Sons of Horus depicted in lion couch scenes under the

142"Totenbahre = Himmelsgottin", an equation attested as far back as the Pyramid Texts; Wolfhart Westendorf, Altagyptische Darstellungen des Sonnenlaufes auf der abschussigen Himmelsbahn, vol. 10 of MAS (Berlin: Hesslin, 1966), 14.

143CT 525; the scene described in the text in de Buck, .Egyptian Coffin Texts, 6:118 represents the bier situation much better than the translation in Faulkner (Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, 2:151) would suggest. Cf. Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 235, for the Twenty-First Dynasty.

144The discussion of the evidence is found in Edouard Naville, "Le dieu Thoth et les points cardinaux," ZAS 15 (1877): 28-31; RARG, 316. picks up the theme and rehashes the evidence. This is graphically rendered on the burial Sledge of Chonsu, CCG 27302; cf. BD 161; Mariette, Denderah 4:70. We should expect that if they were holding up the bier which represents Nut they should syncre- tize with Shu who is also a wind god.

145CT 520-25; all examples of these text passages come from canopic chests.

146Needler, Egyptian Funerary Bed of the Roman Period, 6.

147A. Rosalie David, Religious Ritual at Abydos (c. 1300 BC) (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1973), 180.

25deceased,148 but also on the coffins themselves.149 In

Ptolemaic Egypt, though not always present, lion couch scenes do not completely disappear.150

148Manfred Bietak und Elfriede Reiser-Haslauer, Das Grab des 'Anch-Hor II, 207 and Tafel 139! The dating on this tomb is 26th Dynasty. See also Geoffrey Thorndike Martin, The Tomb of Hetepka and Other Reliefs and Inscriptions from the Sacred Animal Necropolis North Saqqara 1964-1973, vol. 4 of Texts from Excavations (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1979), #179, p. 54, plate 48 (Dynasty 26-27). Cf. hypocephalus not always there, see ibid., #163, plate 45.

149Bietak and Reiser-Haslauer, Das Grab des 'Anch-Hor II, 2 03 and Tafel 135; Parma Museum 101, in CEMAP 33-35, Tav. XIX.

150Achille Adriani, Repertorio d'arte dell 'Egitto Greco-Romano Series A, 2 vols. (Del Banco di Sicilia: Fondazione Ignazio Mormino, 1961), 1:23, 31, and figures 18, 2-22, 24-25, 30, 38-40, 45, 51, 57, 61, 83-91 are about as close as one comes to repre­sentations of the four sons of Horus with the exception of ibid., Series C, vol. 2, figure 340, a late style representation of "un altare" which is a "cataletto di forme leonine” which is missing Duamutef, for some unexplained reason; there is no significant discussion in C. 1:176-177. On the Toronto lion couch, the Sons of Horus are both present and absent in the painted miniature lion couch scenes; Needier, Egyptian Funerary Bed of the Roman Period, Plates I-II (I, right side with; II left side without). Note the change on the coffin of Wsir Wr, Parma Museum 101, in CEMAP 33-35, Tav. XIX.

151The preserved examples of lion couches either have two lion heads on them or come in pairs.

152Dieter Jankuhn, "Steckt hinter dem Gott 'Rwtj' eine Errinnerung an den rituellen Konigsmord?” GM 1 (1972): 11-14. This article needs to be corrected along the lines of L. Stork,

Most lion couch scenes demonstrate an ambiguity between

whether the scene shows the mummification or resurrection of the

individual, this ambivalence presenting one of the difficulties

with understanding such scenes. The couch with two lion's heads151 is the gate between life and death, just as the double­

lion god Rwrwty is the gate between life and death;152 Rwrwty is

26the god of the slaughter-house,153 and the companion of

Atum,154 who sees that the king is exalted.155 The priest of

Rwrwty is the "chief of the embalming house."156 The priest157

embalming the mummy is usually depicted as Anubis,158 and Anubis

masks which the priests worn in performing their office have been preserved (Figure 2).159 Anubis, the jackel-headed god, is the

imy-wt,160 the one in the place of embalming,161 who from the

"Gab es in Agypten einen rituellen Konigsmord?" GM 5 (1973) : 31-32 .

153"Inasmuch as thou makest flourish the offering table of N, thou makest flourish the slaughter-house for inasmuch as N is hungry, Rwrwty is hungry." PT 400 (§696).

154PT 301 (§447).

155"Exalt N's ka to the god, lead him to Rwrwty, make him mount up to Atum." PT 688 (§2081).

156Mastaba of Kamhasut, cited in Jankuhn, "Steckt hinter den Gott 'Rwty' eine Erinnerung an den rituellen Konigsmord," 14.

151htmw-ntr wyt, htmw-wyt, or simply wjt, Wolja Erichsen, Demotisches Glossar (Kopenhagen: Munksgaard, 1954), 80.

158Christine Seeber, "Maske," LdA 3:1197; Barbara Watterson, The Gods of Ancient Egypt (London: Batsford, 1984), 174; The Tomb of Iry-Nufer in Robert S. Bianchi, Museums of Egypt (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1980), 134-35. For texts, see Gunther Roeder, Urkunden zur Religion des alten Agypten (Jena: Diederichs, 1915), 297-305.

159Hildesheim Museum 1585, in Hans Kayser, Das Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim (Hamburg: de Gruyter, 1966), 70. Seeber, "Maske," 3:1196-99: "Die Darstellungen ermoglichen in der Regel keineUnterscheidung zwischen Gotth.eiten und eventuell maskierten Priestern in Gotterrollen" and the wt-priest wears it in the embalming ritual.

160Wb 1:378-80; CDME, 71.

161Wt always has something to do with embalming: as a verb it means "to embalm, to dry out, to wrap up"; as a noun it is the mummy cover whether coffin or badages; as an agent noun it is the embalmer; as a place it is the "place of embalming"; see James P.

7.1

earliest times had been associated not only with kingship, but "was

invovled in ritual killings when 'Upper and Lower Egypt were received'."162

Allen, The Inflestion of the Verb in the Pyramid Texts, vol. 2 of Bibliotheca Aegyptia (Malibu: Undena, 1984), 605, 607; Wb 1:378- 80; CDME, 71; DLE 1:134-35; Erichsen, Demotisches Glossar, 80; even Coptic OYEITE "desiccated", Walter E. Crum, A Coptic Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1939), 495; Jaroslav Cern^, Coptic Etymological Dictionary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 218.

162Thomas J. Logan, "The origins of the Jmy-wt Fetish," Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 27 (1990): 69.

163Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der altagyptischen Opferformel, 227-28.

164Neukon, the same word is used in Manetho for the Egyptian kings who immediately preceded the First Dynasty; Manetho, Aegyptiaca fragments 2.2, 6, 7a.

165Possibly Baal-shamin, "lord of the heavens", a late form of Hadad (Akkadian Adad), syncretized with Zeus. Baalshamin origin­ated in Phonecia, but his cult spread to Sla, Batanee, Palmyra and Dura on the Euphrates. The cult is best attested in Palmyra. He is generally associated with the dieties Aglibol, Malakbel, and

Other evidences that the evisceration of the mummy was at that

time considered a symbolic sacrifice dedicated to the Sons of Horus

might be adduced during the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. Not only do the offering formulae appear again,163 but the verso of Leiden

Papyrus I 384—a papyrus more famous for containing the Egyptian

Myth of the Sun's Eye—contains a text in Demotic and Greek

illustrated with a lion couch scene with Anubis embalming the mummy

(Figure 4) ; the text says, "Burn N to ashes. . . . Burn N until she

come unto me, N, immediately, immediately, quickly, quickly, I adjure you, gods of the dead, by the dead kings,164 the god

Balsamos,165 the jackel-headed god166 and the gods who are with

28

him."166 167 Immediately below the scene are the words, "Let Abraham

who . . . upon . . . wonder marvelously, (wpi %-0a/iPi tw aPpaag o e7ri"168 These, however, are not conclusive evidences,

merely subsidiary ones.

Allath; see Paul Collart, "Baalshamin," Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (Zurich: Artemis, 1981), 111/1:75. His presence here indicates that his influence reached Thebes in Upper Egypt whence Leiden Papyrus I 384 came. Baal-shamin was the creator in the Phonecian pantheon, see Philo of Byblos, fragment B, in Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica 1.10.7, in Harold W. Attridge and Robert A. Oden, Jr., Philo of Byblos The Phoenician History: Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Notes, vol. 9 of Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series (Washington, D. C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1981), 40; cf. 81 n. 49.

166Kynokephalos, common epithet of Anubis; see Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanorum religionum 2.2.

167Papyrus Leiden I 384, cols. 16-17, in PGM 2:86. The Demotic text is in Janet H. Johnson, "The Demotic Magical Spells of Leiden I 384," OMRO 56 (1975): 29-64, Plates VIII-XIII, the quoted section is on p. 44-45, Plate XIII. The best picture is the photo in Preisdanz, PGM, 2:Tafel II.

168Papyrus Leiden I 384, col. 17, in PGM, 2:86. Oddly enough, this is considered a love charm! On this now see John Gee, "References to Abraham Found in Two Egytian Texts," Insights: An Ancient Window (September 1991): 1, 3. Cf. Papyrus Graecae Magicae 1:195-222, 36:295-311, in PGM 1:12; 2:173.

169Abdul-Qader Muhammed, The Development of the Funerary Beliefs and Practices Displayed in the Private Tombs of the New Kingdom at Thebes (Cairo: General Organisation for Government Printing Offices, 1966), 236.

170See the comments of Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, 145-46, 222.

In the New Kingdom, "the deceased and his wife are often seen paying homage to [the Sons of Horus]."169 Perhaps this was

because they were part of the ennead; though unlike other major gods of the ennead,170 the Sons of Horus were not called upon in

29oaths.171 In the 21st Dynasty, Rainses III exploited the rela­

tionship of the Sons of Horus with Horus,172 by identifying his

own sons who predeceased him with the Sons of Horus thus equating

himself with Horus and emphasizing his own legitimacy to the

throne.173 This serves as an example of how in the New Kingdom

the Sons of Horus come into their own as part of the coronation

ceremony representing the four quarters of the earth over which the king has been made ruler.174 The Sons of Horus were equated with

the four corners of the earth (Figure 5), but the attempts to

identify which went with which are pointless as the conflicting

evidence allows for "no overall system (kein allgemeingiiltiges

Schema)."175

171They have no part of "die sakrale Schwurformel . . . des Tempeleides;" see Ursula Kaplony-Heckel, Die demotischen Tempel- eide, 2 vols., vol. 6 of AA (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1963), 1:24- 26.

172See the discussion in Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, 145-147 which emphasizes an obvious point which has too often been overlooked.

173See Friedrich Abitz, Ramses III in der Grabern seiner Sohne, vol. 72 of OBO (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1986), 62-67. The texts on the walls also connect the Sons of Horus with coronation and legitimation of the king.

174See Abitz, Ramses III in der Grabern seiner Sohne, 62-67; RARG, 315-16; Matthieu Heerma von Voss, "Horuskinder," in LdA, 3:53; cf. Paul Barguet, Le temple d'Amon-Re a Karnak (Caire: IFAO, 1962), 289, n. 4; GEA 217.

175UAK 16; von Voss, "Horuskinder;" see also Nibely, "Facsimile No. 1, by the Figures," 86, 87, n. 118; Goff (Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 140-41) denies that the Sons of Horus are connected with the four corners of the earth.

"Come From the Four Winds"

30

Sacrifice, according to Burkert, "betrays an underlying

anxiety about the continuation of life, but it is just as necessary for new life to be able to start again."176 A major function of

the Sons of Horus consists of assisting in the resurrection of the

deceased.177 The sons of Horus withhold the hunger (associated

with Tefnut) and thirst (associated with Shu) from the belly and

lips of the deceased,178 providing him with the bread and water

of life.179 In the Coffin Texts, the Sons of Horus not only

provide sustenance to the deceased180 but also clothing.181

The Sons of Horus guarding the visera of the deceased is well known

but in the Book of the Dead, the "chapter of not allowing a man's

heart to be taken from him in the other world" is accompanied with

176Burkert, Homo Necans, 16.

177CT 761, 549, 520-23. "Knit thyself upon thy bones, unite thy flesh;" CT 519. Goff lists six situations in which the Sons of Horus are associated with the resurrection in the 21st Dynasty: 1- with the lion couch; 2- in the field of reeds; 3- standing before Nut; 4- on the solar bark traveling thorugh the heavens; 5- accompanying the goddess of the West before the Hheart sign; and 6- "within the coils of a great saving serpent." (Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 235.

178PT 338 (§§552-53); GEA 217.

179In this case bread and beer, Pyramid Text 373 (§§654-57). For parallels to this phenomenon see Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmarchen, 3 vols. (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1980, vol. 3 is a reprint of vol. 3, 3rd. ed. Gottingen: Dieterich'schen,1856), 3:18 (30); see the Mesopotamian Adapa story in "Adapa," tr. E. A. Speiser, in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 3rd. ed. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UniversityPress, 1969), 101-103; cf. Isaiah 55:1; John 4:10-14; 6:26-58;7:37-39.

180CT 751, 917.

181Altenmuller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151.

31a vignette of the Sons of Horus.182 They watch a man's heart so

that it may be weighed in the balance while they look on.183

182BD 27.

183Parma Museum 104 showing BD 29A, in CEMAP 36-38.

184The general notion is that this phenomenon "belibt unklar;" Beatrix GeBler-Lohr, "Zur Schreibung von m3c-hrw mit der Blume,” GM 116 (1990): 36, 43 n. 73.

185GeBler-Lohr, "Zur Schreibung von m3c-hrw mit der Blume,” 35.

186Hart, Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 204, iden­tifies this as always being the blue lotus, as does GeBler-Lohr, "Zur Schreibung von m3c-hrw mit der Blume," 33-36. That such a point makes a difference, see W. Benson Harer, Jr., "Pharmacolog­ical and Biological Properties of the Egyptian Lotus," JARCE 22 (1985): 52.

187Johanna Dittmar, Blumen und Blumenstraufie als Opfergabe im alten Agypten, Heft 43 of MAS (Miinchen: Deutscher Kiinstverlag, 1986), 132; cf. Marie-Louise Ryhiner, L'offrande du Lotus dans les temples egyptiens de l'epoque tardive, vol. 4 of Rites fcgyptiens (Bruxelles: FERE, 1986), 220-21.

188Dittmar, Blumen und Blumenstraufie als Opfergabe im alten Agypten, 133; Ryhiner, L'offrande du Lotus, 221-22.

189GeBler-Lohr, "Zur Schreibung von m3c-hrw mit der Blume," 27.

190GeBler-Lohr, "Zur Schreibung von m3c-hrw mit der Blume," 36- 37; Ryhiner, L'offrande du Lotus, 221-22.

The judgment scene from the Book of the Dead also illustrates

the association of the Sons of Horus with the resurrection.184

In this scene, which first appears during the reign of Amenophis

III,185 they stand before Osiris on a blue lotus,186 the symbol

of the morning of creation,187 and thus also of rebirth,188 and

justification.189 Not only does the scene represent the

resurrection of the dead,190 but introduces a moral dimension

32

because the candidate can come forth in the morning191 of the

resurrection until after the judgment wherein he is found

"justified a million times."192

191"To call the blue lotus day blooming is actually imprecise. It does open at sunrise; however, it follows the pattern of our familiar morning glory and is tightly closed before noon. This suggest that scenes of ritual or daily life such as the sumptuous New Kingdom banquets (in which the lotus is portrayed in open bloom) must have taken place in the morning." Thus Harer, "Pharmacological and Biological Properties of the Egyptian Lotus," 52; cf. Ryhiner, L'offrande du Lotus, 222.

192GeBler-Lohr, "Zur Schreibung von m3c-hrw mit der Blume," 33.

193The Sons of Horus seem to have played some small role in the ritual reenactment of the drowning of Osiris; see Pyramid Text 423 (§§765-767); cf. Shabako Stone 11a, 19-21a, 62-63. See also BD 17:38-39, where the Sons of Horus are assigned to protect Osiris after his cleansing in the wcbt, which is not a "tomb" as trans­lated by Allen, Book of the Dead, 29; see Spencer, The Egyptian Temple, 160, where it is near the portico of the temple, and part of the temple complex; cf. DLE, 1:108. A set of canopic jars in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, depict the guarding of the Sons of Horus as a wcb purification ceremony; see Albert Lyons, Medicine: An Illustrated History (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1978), ills. 129-34.

194CT 1126.

195Henry Frederick Lutz, Egyptian Statues and Statuettes in the Museum of Anthropology of the University of California (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1930), 1, pl. 1; cf. Leclant Montouemhat, 123-24.

In their capacity both as resurrectors of the dead and as

wardens of the purity of the deceased,193 the Sons of Horus are

depicted as defeating the serpent (cf. Figure 3) . Thus, in the

Coffin Texts, as precursor to representations in the Amduat, the

Sons of Horus are associated with the back of Apep.194 On a

statue in the Lowie Museum, Imseti and Hapi are shown, the first holding two lizards and the second grasping a snake.195 In the

late Mythological Papyri, the sons of Horus are often shown wrapped

33

by a snake,196 from which one emerges in the resurrection.197

Immediately after these precursors to the resurrection Apep is

bound, Re emerges after visiting the dead,198 and Osiris rises

from the dead.199 In the vingette from the seventeenth chapter

of the Book of the Dead, the order is reversed: The Sons of Horus

gather around that the dead may arise from his tomb (Figure

6),200 Re, as a cat, defeats the serpent, and Re-Kheperi takes

off on his solar bark.201 In chapter 112, the Sons of Horus

accompany Horus "that a man might be resurrected (sw3d, grow

green) , and rebellion might be extinguished, . . . when he becomes a great god"202 The deceased addresses these gods, in Chapter

137A:

196Alexandre Piankoff, Mythological Papyri (New York: Bollingen, 1957), 2:2 (Her-Weben, 7 (Tent-diu-Mut), 10 (Pa-di-Amon) , 13 (Bau-Mut-r-Nekhtu) . Goff says of this scene that the Sons of Horus stand "within the coils of a great saving serpent. Taht the serpent is conceived as a psychopomp is made clear by one scene where it is shown in its home within the mountain from which the dead body of Osiris is coming to life" (Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 235).

197Peter A. Piccione, "Mehen, Mysteries, and Resurrection from the Coiled Serpent," JARCE 27 (1990): 43-52.

198CT 1126.

199Piankoff, Mythological Papyri, 2:2 (Her-Weben, 7 (Tent-diu- Mut) , 10 (Pa-di-Amon), 13 (Bau-Mut-r-Nekhtu).

200Cf. BD 151; Petosiris 143:4-6, in Lefebvre, Tombeau de Petosiris, 2:98; Petosiris 135:4-6 in ibid., 2:94; Petosiris 141:4- 6 in ibid., 2:97. Duamutef has been destroyed; Petosiris 129, in ibid., 2:92.

201BD 17.

202BD 112:7-9.

"(0) children of Horus—Imset, Hapi, Duamutef, and

34

Qebehsenuf—exert ye your protection over your Father Osiris Presiding of ther the Westerners, exert ye your protection over N., as from now on. Do ye away with the foulness of Osiris Presiding over the Westerners, that he may live with the gods. Smite (for) him Suty [Seth] (and save N.) from him from dawn on, (even though) Horus is able to save his Father Osiris himself. Him who did this against your Father, dispossess ye him."203

203BD 137A.

204Cf. the Sledge of Khonsu, from Deir el-Medinah, CCG 27302.

205Qebhsenuef is identified with the north wind here; BD 161.

206PT 413 (§§734-736), 368 (§§636-38), 364 (§§618-20).

201RARG, 316; cf. Tomb of Petosiris 82:38-61, in Lefebvre, Tombeau de Petosiris, 2:61-62. Naville, "Le dieu Thoth et les points cardinaux," 30. This suggests Deuteronomy 6:5, note the variations in Matthew 22:37 and Luke 10:27. The variants to the last show that this reading was particularly problematical because it did not sguare with the Old Testament version of the scripture.

The serpent might be replaced by a turtle, as in Book of the Dead

161, where "the turtle dies" that Re might live, and the four winds

shown as Ibis-headed dieties holding staffs which support the

heavens204 open four holes in the sky (pt) that they might "enter

into his [the corpse's] nostrils"; "the bones of Osiris N. are

united; . . . the (re)assembled (members) (of Osiris N.) surpass .

. . his original state."205 After his resurrection, the deceased

himself was considered one of the children of Horus, of which no specific number is mentioned.206

In Late Period Egypt, the Sons of Horus were associated with

various parts of the soul. Imsety brings the Ka; Hapy, the heart

(lb); and Duamutef, the Ba; Qebhsenuef, the mummy (sch) .207

Bringing the gods together allows the deceased to rise from the

35

dead and ascend to the sky.208

208BD 17 vignette; the purposes of Petosiris 82:32-61 are "that thou mayest rest" and "that thou mayest see Re every day", in Lefebvre, Tombeau de Petosiris, 2:61-62.

209This is written with the heaven sign (N1 in Gardiner's Sign List) upside down.

210PT 215 (§§148-49); cf. PT 688 (§§2078-79).

211Homer Iliad XVIII.487-89; Odyssey V.272-275. It should be noted that the Babylonians also referred to the Big Dipper as the wain or wagon in Sumerian times, the term mulrnar-gid-da meaning "the long wagon" and representing the Big Dipper; see NUTBF 89 n. 313, 108, 110-111; as well as MUL.APIN I.i.15-18, II.i.68, in Hermann Hunger and David Pingree, MUL.APIN: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform Beiheft 24 of AfO (Horn, Austria: Berger und Sohne, 1989), 22-23, 87, 137. The earliest suggested date for the composition of the MUL.APIN texts is about 2500 B.C. which would still be roughly contemporary with the Pyramid Texts depending on

"As the Heavens are Higher than the Earth"

The Hebrew Psalmist was surely not the only one to "consider

thy heavens" and link them with the divine; long before the

Israelites existed as a nation, the Egyptians placed the Sons of

Horus in the heavens. In the Pyramid Texts the Egyptians

identified the Sons of Horus among the circumpolar stars. In a

spell advocating the preexistence of the Ka, various parts of the

body (e.g. head, face, ears, eyes, nose, teeth) are identified with

the various circumpolar stars: "Thy hand is Hapy and Duamutef.

Inasmuch as thou biddest ascend to heaven thou ascendest. Thy two

feet are Imsety and Qebhsenuef. Inasmuch as thou biddest descend to the Under-heaven209 thou descendest."210 What we might have

in Pyramid Text 215 is the first mention of the Big Dipper, or Great Wain, long before Homer;211 one is certainly reminded of

36

the later identification of the Sons of Horus with the mshtyw, Ursa Major.212 This link is likely for the rest of the deities

mentioned, who are identified as circumpolar stars (ihm-sk); and

the Big Dipper, even in those days was among the circumpolar stars.213 The four stars of the constellation Ursa Major,214

which Bonnet considered to be the Sons' of Horus original function,215 also represent the Opening of the Mouth instument

the chonology followed; see ibid., 9-12; NUTBF 2 n. 10; AAE 8, 33- 35; Spencer, Death in Ancient Egypt, 18; Richard J. Gillings, Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1972, reprinted New York: Dover, 1982), 260; Peter J. Huber, "Astronomical Evidence for the Long and against the Middle and Short Chronologies," in Paul Anstrom, ed. High, Middle or Low? (Gothenburg: Anstroms, 1987), 5-17. At any rate, the earliest attested MUL.APIN text is 687 B.C., much later attested than the Pyramid Texts (Hunger and Pingree, MUL.APIN, 9) ; and the MUL.APIN text is more likely dated to 1350 B.C.; see NUTBF 34-49.

212See EAT 3:189. The identification is made on the ceiling of the tomb of Petosiris and nine stars of the constellation are so named: Isis, Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, Qebhsenuef, M3n-it-f, Ir-dt- f, Ir-rn-f-ds-f, H3qw; see ibid., 3:65, 196-97. Cf. Mariette, Denderah, 4:pls. 51-55. Goff (Symbols in Ancient Egypt, 140) seems to think that the Sons of Horus represent the constellation Leo, but the passages he cites say nothing of the sort.

213Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill (Boston: Godine, 1969), 59, 141-46, especially the illustration opposite p. 142: The time when the Big Dipper will not be one of the circumpolar stars is yet future. The Egyptians thought of the Big Dipper as permanent; see Papyrus Harris I 42:6-7, in Wolja Erichsen, Papyrus Harris I: Hieroglyphische Transkription, vol. 5 of BA (Bruxelles: FERE, 1933), 47.

214Called the d3d3t h3 Wsir "Council around Osiris" or the hps mht "northern foreleg (Big Dipper)"; BD 17:35. The "seven glorified ones (3hw)" of the Big Dipper are Imseti, Hapy, Duamutef, Qebhsenuef, M3-it-f "He who sees his father", Hr-bq-f "He who is under the moriga tree", Hr-hnty-n-irty "Horus whose forehead has no eyes"; BD 17:38.

215RARG 315; GEA 218.

37(stp, msht),216

216Cf. Haikal, Two Hieratic Funerary Papyri of Nesmin, 2:39 n. 116; CDME 118. See also, EAT 1:28, Plates 4-6, 8-9, 14, 16-21, 23- 24; 3:184-89, Plate 1. This is not the only Old Kingdom association the Sons of Horus seem to have with the Opening of the Mouth ritual. PT 715 (§§2220-21) ; C. Juoco Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian Religion, vol. 2 6 of Studies in the History of Religions (Leiden: Brill, 1973) , 132- 33; PT 368 (§§636-38), 364 (§§618-20), 544-47 (§§1338-42). The Opening of the Mouth goes back even earlier than the Old Kingdom; Otto, Das agyptische Mundoffnungsritual, 2:4-6.

217Actually, according to Eliade, the "very work" of a historian of religions is "to keep himself informed about the research of his colleagues, specialists in other areas, assimil­ating and confronting their findings, and finally integrating them in order to better understand" his own work (ibid., 90-91, 94, 93) . Obviously, in this paper we have only the beginnings of such a work, and at this point, not even that, the first step being to note parallels. Also, we have made it a point of methodology not to go looking for parallels lest "in the night, imagining some fear, how easy is a bush supposed a bear!" We cannot help but think like Hippolyta that "all the story of the night told over, and all their minds transfigur'd so together, more witnesseth than fancy's images, and grows to something of great constancy; but howsoever, strange and admirable."

218See Henri Michel, "Les Jades astronomigues chinois: Une hypothese sur leur usage," Musees Rouyaux d'Art et d'Histoire Bulletin 31 (1947): 31-38; Henri Michel, "Astronomical Jades,"

Comparative evidence from other cultures must be used

cautiously lest such seething brains, such shaping fantasies

apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends, and the scholar be accused of seeing Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.217

Nevertheless, one might make a connection with the Chinese pi and

ts'ung (also called the suan-ki and the yu-heng). These two jades

objects appear to have been used in ancient China to sight the

polar star. When the edge of the pi, which represented heaven,

lined up with Ursa Major then looking through the ts'ung would locate the polar star.218 The ts'ung also had room for another

38

pi circle on the lower end; thus both an upper and lower heaven

could be represented, the square ts'ung representing the earth and

its four quarters—even as early as the Pyramid Texts, the Sons of

Horus are associated with the orientation of the four corners of

the earth and used to orient the pyramid.219 The resultant

Chinese device is a dead ringer for a set of chariot wheels, the

chariot being a widely known motif for ascension into heaven.220

This would all be irrelavant if an eminent Egyptologist had not claimed similar things for the Pyramids of Egypt.221 This,

however, is mere speculation—such tricks hath strong imagination—

for there is at present no evidence for any connection between

these coincedentally similar phenomena, and it is doubtful that any

could ever be adduced.

Oriental Art 2 (1950): 156-59; Henri Michel, "Chinese Astronomical Jades," Popular Astronomy 58 (1950): 222-30; on similar polar sighting tubes in the western tradition, see Robert Eisler, "The Polar Sighting-Tube," Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences 2 (1949): 312-32. Many thanks to Michael Lyon for drawing my attention to this material as well as some of his unpublished refinements on Michel's thesis.

219See particularly Joachim Spiegel, Das Auferstehungsritual der Unas-Pyramide, vol. 23 of AA (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1971), 356, commenting on PT 254.

2202 Kings 2:11; more on this later. For the Mesopotamian "chariot of the king of the gods" whose "name is Venus" see K9008 + 83-1-18,141, in W. G. Lambert, "A New Fragment from a List of Antediluvian Kings and Marduk's Chariot, " in Symbolae Biblicae et Mesopotamicae Francisco Mario Theodoro de Liagre Bohl Dedicatae (Leiden: Brill, 1973), 276-79.

221See Edwards, Pyramids of Egypt, 105, 100, 275-80. This author has yet to discover whether one could actually see the polar stars from inside the pyramid.

39The Sons of Horus permit mobility,222 whether running the

deceased's errands, or fetching "this boat which Khnum built, which is in this waterway of the htm bird."223 They are the four legs

or beams holding up the boat of Sokaris; these legs are shaped like

the sn sign, thus in carrying the boat of Sokaris (which equates with Osiris himself) in the festival of Sokaris,224 "they support

his life."225 In the Coffin Texts also, they not only bring the

boat for the deceased (presumably for the Sokaris Festival),226

but they are the four openings in the boat,227 the "ribs" of the

boat,228 and the rowers of Hetep.229 In this connection the

222PT 215 (§§148-49); cf. GEA 217-18.

223PT 522 (§1228), 670 (§§1983-84).

224PT 644-45 (§§1823-24), 648 (§§1828-29); cf. CT 397; PT 368 (§§636-38) , 364 (§§618-20) .

225C. Jouco Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals: Enactments of Religi­ous Renewal, vol. 13 of Studies in the History of Religions (Leiden: Brill, 1967), 80-81.

226CT 397; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 150-51.

227CT 398; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151.

228CT 4 04. This is repeated with lacunae, and reordering the epithets 2, 4, 1, 3, in CT 405; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151. The original order is used in BD 99:18. This last chapter is an astronomical text as is shown by the identification of the "mooring post" with the "Lady of the Two Lands"; BD 99:6; cf. de Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 414-16; EAT 2:7. Neugebauer's and Parker's discussion of the hippopotamus constellation which holds the mooring post (ibid., 3: 184-88, figs. 27-31) is lacking in this regard (ibid., 3:189-90). Also mentioned are the hps (BD 99:7; EAT 3:190-91), etc. The mnit, mooring post, being an hour star (ibid., 2:7, 36-46, 52-54) cannot be a circumpolar star.

40

Coffin Texts give them the following names: "He who plunders," "He

who acts as a robber," "He who sees his father," and "He who makes his own names."229 230 In the Book of the Day (Ramses VI), they ride

the solar bark with other dieties.231 Perhaps this is all best

summarized at the end of the Opening of the Mouth ceremony from the

Eighteenth Dynasty:

229CT 466 (probably htp being a pun off hpt "oar") ; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151. Luscher suggests that the Sons of Horus might be present, unlabeled, as the four rowers on the corners of the boat in Middle Kingdom ship models; UAK 16; cf. Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 235.

230CT 404. This is repeated with lacunae, and reordering the epithets 2, 4, 1, 3, in CT 405; cf. Altenmiiller, Synkretismus in den Sargentexten, 151. Note that those too are circumpolar stars; EAT 3:196-97.

231Wr-wr, Hr-smsw and Ir-wpt-f-ds-f. Alexandre Piankoff, Le Livre du jour et de la nuit, BdE 13 (Cairo: IFAO, 1942), 8.

232The scene is labeled "Causing the statue to be lifted to his burial; nine friends bear (it) upon their arms." Opening of the Mouth, scene 73, in Otto, Das agyptische Mundoffnungsritual, 1:199- 203, 2:165-66.

"0 Sons of Horus, go under your father; bear ye him up! He shall not retreat from you, 0 Sons of Horus, go your father, bear ye him up! ON, Horus hath granted thee that his sons might be under thee, that they might bear thee and that thou mayest have strength through them. 0 Sons of Horus: Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, and Qebhsenuef, go ye under your father, and bear ye him up! ON, they bear thee like Horus in the hnw- bark. He exalts thee as a god in thy name of Sokar. 0 N, thou are united like Upper and Lower Egypt, as Horus through whom thou art united."232

"What, Are There Masques?"

The Sons of Horus are usually detected by their iconography.

The forms, however, under which they appear change over time. They

are not represented at all in the Old Kingdom, when the canopic

41

jars were simple jars. "Canopic jars with human-headed lids were

an innovation of the Heracleopolitan Period," first appearing in a tomb dating from Dynasties 9-10.233 The canopic jars of the

First Intermeidate Period and the Middle Kingdom generally have human heads,234 which may indicate that the Egyptians viewed

their gods anthropomorphically;235 however, the Sons of Horus are

all depicted on contemporaneous coffin chests with falcon heads like Horus.236 During the 18th Dynasty and even the 19th

233Edward Brovarski, Canopic Jars, 1. The oldest canopic jars in the Turin museum are nos. 19068 and 19069, both of which are Xllth Dynasty, and have human heads; see Dolzani, Vasi Canopi, 43- 44.

234A11 having human heads according to David "Introduction," 10; Brovarski, Canopic Jars, 1. Exceptions in CCG 4705-6, 4978-79, 4986-88, 4998, 5000-1, in RAC 353-54, 383, 386-87, 390.

235Another indication is Herodotus' statement concerning the one god of the Egyptians whom "the painters and sculptures draw (graphousi) and carve (glyphousi)" with animal parts "although they do not imagine him to really be that way but like the other gods;" (Herodotus Histories II.46.2.); cf. Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, 107-109, 124-25; Manetho, Ton Physion Epitome frag. 82, in Diogenes Laertius, Proem. §10. The Sons of Horus provide a counter-argument for the notion that "of all the changes that occured in Egyptian imagery, the greatest was from purely animal forms, through half-human forms, to purely human forms. Such changes went along with the evolution of an urban culture and an increase in population." Virginia Lee Davis, "Pathways to the Gods," in Ancient Egypt: Discovering its Splendors (Washington D. C.: National Geographic Society, 1978), 161. Yet another example of how Egypt "riicklaufig entwickelt" Siegfried Schott, "Nachwort," in Kurt Sethe, Vom Bilde zum Buchstaben: Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Schrift, vol. 12 of UGAA (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1939, reprint Hildesheim: 01ms, 1964) , 80.

236See de Buck Egyptian Coffin Texts, 6:117; Altenmuller, Synkretismus in den Sargtexten, 150; also CCG 4740, in RAC 377-81, Plates LXXXIV-LXXXVI; and CCG 4980, in ibid., 383-84, Plates LXXXIX-XC.

42

Dynasty, the canopic jars generally still have human heads,237

though the earliest examples where the heads vary according to the

son of Horus concerned are "three canopies of the beginning of

Dynasty 18 in New York."238 The pivotal Amarna Period where

canopic jars has either human-headed or plain jar-lids, as they

were in the Old Kingdom.239 "Immediately after the Amarna Period

(the reign of Tutankhamun or Ai)"240 there begins to be a shift

to depicting the Sons of Horus as four separate figures, each with

its own head: Duamutef with the head of a jackal, Qebhsenuef with

the head of a falcon, Imseti with the head of a human, and Hapi

with the head of a baboon.241 The forms of the Sons of Horus

were quite mutable,242 for the Book of the Dead and other later

funeral papyri depict the Sons of Horus all as Wd3t-eyes rowing

237A good example of this is Cairo Museum entry no. SR41 = CCG 4251, a canopic jar of Sennedjem, which is human headed but dedicated to Duamutef; or the human headed canopic jar with a dedication to Hapy in C. N. Reeves, "Miscellanea Epigraphica," SAK 13 (1986): 167-68. The change in heads is dated to the RamessidePeriod; AAE 221; GEA 217.

238Brovarski, Canopic Jars, 3; see also Egyptian Collections in the British Museum, 147.

239For what is supposed to be Akhenaton's canopic jars (which are human-headed), see Geoffrey T. Martin, "Notes on a Canopic Jar from King's Valley Tomb 55," Melanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, 2 vols., vol. 97 of BdE (Cairo: IFAO, 1985), 2:111-24, plates I-III. For the plain jar lids, see N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, 6 vols. (London: Egyptian Exploration Fund, 1903-08), 3:17 and plate XXIV.

240Ratie, Papyrus de Neferoubenef, 23.

241For references see supra note 5.

242See UAK 16; Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 139.

43

oars with snakes attached;243 a motif described as early as the

243BD 148.

244CT 404-5, 466.

245CCG 4187 (Dynasty 26), in RAC 135-36, Jan Assman, Das Grab der Mutirdis, Band 6 of Grabung im Asasif 1963-1970, vol. 13 of AV (Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 1977), 94; Tafel 43, 45, Farbtafel A; Parma Museum 186 (Dynasty 26), in CEMAP 116, Tav. XXVII; Reeves, "Miscellanea Epigraphica," 167-68.

246CCG 4188 (Dynasty 26), in RAC 136-37; Leclant, Montouemhat, 124-27, Pl. XL.

247KAT 3:196; WKMAS 3959 (19/20 Dynasty), in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen I, 133-38; WKMAS 9092 (Lybian), in ibid., 115-18; CCG 4189 (Dynasty 26), in RAC 137; Assman, Grab der Mutirdis, 94, Tafeln 43, 45, Farbtafel A; Papyrus Parma 104, in CEMAP 104, Tav. X.

248Papyrus Parma 104 (Dynasty 18), in CEMAP 37; Tav. X.

249WKMAS 3 602 (22-25th Dynasty) , in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen I, 81—84; WKMAS 9093 (Lybian), in ibid., 119-22; David, Macclesfield Collection, E31.

250WKMAS 3957 (19/20th Dynasty), in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen I, 123-28; Parma Museum 187 (26th Dynasty), in CEMAP 116, Tav. XXVII; CCG 4237 (Roman period), in RAC 165-66.

251WKMAS 3603 (22-25th Dynasty), in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen I, 85-88; WKMAS AS 8284 (late 26th Dynasty), in ibid., 71- 75; Lutz, Statues, Pl. I; Leclant, Montouemhat, 124 n. 1, Pls. XXXVII-XXXVIII.

252"consistently jackal-headed" EAT 3:196.

253WKMAS 3578 (22-25 Dynasty), in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen I, 49-52; CCG 4225 (19th Dynasty), in RAC 158-59; CCG 4163 (19-20th Dynasty), in ibid., 118-19; CCG 4182 (22-25th? Dynasty), in ibid.,

Coffin Texts.244 To show the wide variety of forms, we again

resort to a chart (once again, s = standard form; x = exception)

Head Shape\Son of Horus Imseti Hapi Duamutef Qebehsenuef

Human s X245 x246 x247Baboon X248 s x249Jackal X250 X251 s252 X253

44

FalconLionFish

V254*2S,

x255 x256X254 255 256 257 258

131-32; CCG 4178 (23-26th Dynasty), in ibid., 129.254WKMAS 9066 (26th Dynasty), in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen

II, 95-99; WKMAS 9095 (26th Dynasty), in Reiser-Haslauer, Die Kanopen II, 125-29; CCG 4164 (19th-20th Dynasty), in RAC 120.

255Rosalie David, Macclesfield Collection of Egyptian Anti­quities (Warminster, Wits: Aris and Phillips, 1980), E30 (Dynasty 18); Papyrus Parma 104 (Dynasty 18), in CEMAP 37, Tav. X; Goff, Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 223 citing Piankoff, Mythological Papyri 22, vingette 2, p. 171.

256"falcon-headed as usual [sic!]" EAT 3:199; Cairo Museum CG 4224 (NK) , in RAC 157-58; CCG 4181 (22-25th? Dynasty), in ibid., 130-31; CCG 4177 (23-25th Dynasty), in ibid., 128.

257EAT 3:196.

258EAT 3:196.

259"Qebehsenouf est represents avec une tete de lion, au lieu d'une tete de faucon ce qui est, semble-t-il, le seul exemple connu." Ratie, Papyrus de Neferoubenef, 23, Pl. Ill, BD 151A.

260"Qebehsenuf erscheint meist als Fisch (Tilapia);" Assman, Grab der Mutirdis, 94 n. 98 (Dynasty 26); Ingrid Gamer-Walkert, Fische und Fischkulte im alten Agypten, Band 21 of AA (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1970), 123-24; LeClant, Montouemhat, 125.

261See BD 151, in Lepsius, Todtenbuch der Agypter, Plate LXXIV. This is particularly noteworthy because Chapters 17 and 148 (Plates VII, IX, LXX) show the Sons of Horus with their typically vari- agated zoocephalic heads.

262Coffin cover in the Rosacrucian Museum in San Jose. No museum number was given for this Ptolemaic piece.

Sx259x260

Sometimes, even in the later period, the Sons of Horus may still be

represented as all human,261 there is even one representation of

the Sons of Horus where they are shown as a jackal, a falcon, a bull and a snake;262 and two canopic jars in the Cairo Museum

45

have bull-headed stoppers.263 Thus the Egyptians established a

precedent for mutating the forms of these dieties, just as they

modify the forms of others.

263CCG 4725 and 4726, in RAC 359.

264"Magic" is a loaded term, pejoratively applied to material which is often not understood by the scholars who make the appellation; see David E. Aune, "Magic in Early Christianity," Aufsteig und Niedergang der romischen Welt (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1980), 11.23.2:1509-13; Sam Eitrem and Johan Harm Croon, "Magic," The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 637-38. For sundry definitions, see Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician (San Francisco: Harper and Brothers, 1978), 68-80, 139; Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 106-7.

265The word here, At Pi, is the etacised form of Ai put] "the west bank of the Nile" according to Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones and Roderick MacKenzie, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 1047. On etacism see Anna Elbina Morpurgo Davies, "Pronunciation, Greek," Oxford Classi­cal Dicationary, 884.

266British Museum Papyrus 122.2-12 (= PGM VIII.1-2), in F. G. Kenyon, Greek Papyri in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1893, reprinted Milano: Cisalpino-Goloardica, 1973), 116. Edward N. O'Neil has mistranslated this passage in Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation including the Demotic Spells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986) , 145.

A "magical"264 papyrus from the fourth century A.D. contains

a reference to the sons of Horus in their aspect as wind deities.

Although their names have changed, they are still recognizable:

"[Come] to me, lord Hermes, like the children to the womb of wom[e]n. Come to me, lord Hermes, gather the foods of gods and men to me, N. 0 lord Hermes give me grace, food, daily victory, elegance of form, strength over everything and all the names which thou hast in heaven: Lamfthenouothi, Ouasthenouothi, Oamenoth, Enomouch. These are those which I know in the four corners of the sky and also the forms which thou hast. In the east thou hast the form of an ibis; in the Lybia265 thou hast the form of a dog-faced animal; in the north thou hast the form of a snake, in the south thou hast the form of a wolf. Thy plants are the grape, the date-palm, and the olive.266

46

The Sons of Horus are present in this Greek magical papyrus but they appear in altered form. Hermes, the Greek Thoth,267 is a

wind god with whom the four winds are here equated. This parallels

the sons of Horus who are equated with Thoth in his aspect of the

wind god.268 The association with the internal organs and the

corners of the earth are also present. Other scholars have noticed

the changing of names and forms of the Sons of Horus according to

the nation and time period,269 but here we will look only at one

other development of this phenomenon.

267Herodotus, Histories II.51.1, 4; Plato, Phaedrus 59 (274C- 275B); Aristoxenus Tarentius, De arithm., in Stobaeus, Eclogai; Cicero, De natura deorum 22 (56); Philo Byblius in Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 1.9.24.

2 68"Thoth n'est souvent pas autre chose que le dieu du vent." Naville, "Le dieu Thoth et les points cardinaux," 28; Constant De Wit, "Les Genies des Quatre Vents au Temple d'Opet," CdE 32 (1957): 25-39.

269When foreign gods are imported into or exported from Egypt, their names often change; see Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, 257, 166-68; Alessandro Roccati, "Une Legende egyptienne d'Anat," RdE, 24 (1972): 154, 158-59; Manetho, fragment 80, in Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 28. For foreign cults and their proliferation in New Kingdom times, see Ashraf Iskander Sadek, Popular Religion in Egypt during the New Kingdom, vol. 27 of HAB (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1987), 152-61.

270For Predynastic times see Barbara Adams, Predynastic Egypt, 33 (Mesopotamia), 37 (Nubia), 43 (Syria), 53, 57 (Mesopotamia), 60 (Susiana and Afghanistan!), 66, 68-70 (Syro-Palestine). For Old Kingdom contacts with Cyprus, see W. Max Muller, "Foreigners Importing Tin into Ancient Egypt, about 2500 B.C." Egyptological Researches, 3 vols. (Washington D.C.: Carnegie Instituion, 1906), 1:5-8.

No Near Eastern civilization exists in a complete cultural

vacuum. As sure as there were exchanges of goods,270 ideas were

also exchanged across national boundaries. Beginning with the New

47

Kingdom, and possibly earlier, Egypt's history is continually

swirled with that of other countries in the whirlpool of events.271 Thus, it is only natural to find some of Egypt's art

and culture migrating outward like the ripples of a rock tossed

into a body of water; and the iconography of the Sons of Horus

meanders into some strange waters once it leaves Egypt—a pheno­

menon we are finally in a position to trace.

271In general, see Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs, 178-79, 189-209; AAE 42-46; David O'Connor, "New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, 1552-664 BC," in B. G. Trigger, et al., Ancient Egypt: A Social History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) , 203-4, 210; Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, tr. John Raffan (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985) , 24. For contact with the Aegean, see Burkert, Greek Religion, 20; T. B. Mitford, The Inscriptions of Kourion (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1971), 16-17, 40-42. For Babylonia, see The Biography of Ahmose son of Ebana, 36-37, in Kurt Sethe, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie = Urk 4 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906), 9; Smith, "An Egyptian in Babylonia," JEA (1934): . For Assyria, see J. V. Kinnier Wilson, The Nimrud Wine Lists (London: The British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1972), 62-63, 91, 138, plate 20, line 19'; CAD 6:116; AHw 328. For Mitanni, see the Letter from Tushratta to Amenophis III (VAT 422), Die Tontaflen von El-Amarna, vol. XII of Voderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler, 35-55, no. 200. For Hatti, see KBo V, 6.

272E.g. Exodus 1-15; Isaiah 19-20; Jeremiah 42-44, 46; Ezekiel 20:5-25.

273For example, compare Isaiah 7:1-2 with the iw.tw formulas as discussed in Anthony John Spalinger, Aspects of the Military Documents of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. 9 of Yale Near Eastern Researches (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), 1-33. Compare and caontrast with Lugale 20-80, in J. van Dijk, LUGAL UD ME-LAM-bi NIR-GAL, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1983), 2:32-52.

Israel, Egypt's closest neighbor to the north—dispite some of the polemic against Egypt in her records272—clearly borrowed

many things from Egypt,273 particularly during period when Egypt

and the Israelite kingdoms of Judah and Israel were close politic-

48

ally. One of these times of political proximity immediately

preceded the Babylonian captivity of the kingdom of Judah when

Egypt, under Sheshonq, installed one of Judah's kings, whom Babylon

was later to replace at the beginning of the first wave of the Babylonian exile.274

2742 Kings 23:29-24:7; 2 Chronicles 35:20-36:13; Jeremiah 42- 43.

275Ezekiel 1:1-2.

276For indications of this, see Ezekiel 8, 40-48.

277Ezekiel 1:1. The Cheber river is a fair distance from Babylon proper. "As captive domiciled away from the great centers of culture, Ezekiel had little opportunity to study the artwork of Babylonian temples or witness the grand processions of the gods." Greenberg, Ezekiel, 58.

278Cf. BD 162:8.

279Ezekiel 1:4-14. Robert Eisler ("The Polar Sighting-Tube," 329-30 n. 49, 331 n. 56) connects this passage with astronomical observation in general and the polar sighting tube in particular.

Ezekiel, one of the first exiles to leave Judah to go off to Babylon,275 having been born in Jerusalem and having been old

enough to have had some first hand knowledge of the temple at Jerusalem, and its cult,276 would also have been aware of the

Egyptian influence. In Babylonian captivity on the Cheber river,

away from the cultural centers of Mesopotamia, 277 he describes a

vision of a firey whirlwind278 and four beasts with the faces of

a man, a lion, a bull and an eagle.279 In this passage, which

many commentators either admit they do not understand or

49

delete,280 Ezekiel seems to use the motif in his visions modified

by substituting the ox and the lion for the jackal and the baboon.281 The bull is a symbol of divinity, immortality, sacri­

fice, "life giving power", and the Messiah, though "one gets the

impression . . . that the bull as symbol had much more importance than the bull with any special name or function;"282 and

furthermore as Jewish symbols, "the lion and the bull had a similar meaning, since they are interchangeable."283 Additionally,

neither the jackal nor the baboon are indigenous to Israel whereas

280D. M. G. Stalker, Ezekiel: Introduction and Commentary (London: SCM Press, 1968), 45; John B. Taylor ,Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary (London: Tyndale, 1969), 55; John W. Wevers, Ezekiel, The Century Bible (London: Nelson, 1969), 45-46; Walther Eichrodt, Ezekiel: A Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), 55; Eduardo Zurro, Luis Alonso Schokel, Jose Maria Valverde and Ernesta Vogt, Ezequiel, vol. IV, 8 of Los Libro Sagrados (Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad, 1971), 22-23; Keith W. Carley, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 13; Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1, tr. Ronald E. Clements, Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 101-4; Ronald M. Hals, Ezekiel, vol. 19 of The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1989), 13-15.

281Ezekiel 1:5-12.

282Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, 8:28, 6. For other interpretations, see E. W. Hengstenberg, Die Weissagungen des Propheten Ezekiel fur solch die in der Schrift forschen (Berlin: Schlawitz, 1867), 16-17; Stalker, Ezekiel, 45- 46.

283Erwin R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, 13 vols. (New York: Bollingen, 1958), 8:5-6, 28; the discussion covers the earlier period as well; the quote is from p. 5; cf. C. N. Deeds, "The Labyrinth," in S. H. Hooke, The Labyrinth (London: Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1935), 7. Dr. Keller objects to citing Goodenough or implying that any Egyptian symbolism was ever used in Judaism; but Goff (Symbols of Ancient Egypt, 116, 278 n. 166) does the same thing.

50

the lion and bull are.284 Though it is common to attribute the

beasts in Ezekiel to Mesopotamia, 285 286 the motif is not to be found

in Mesopotamian sources: "Multiplication of faces in the manner of

Ezekiel's creatures is, however, extremely rare. . . . Janus

(=two)-faced gods are more common. . . . However, the symbolism of

four distinct faces must be different, and for that we have no analogues.1,286 Four faced gods with different faces are not,

however,.unknown in Egypt,287 which some commentators consider a

source of the Ezekiel passage.288

284See Fauna and Flora of the Bible, 2nd. ed. (London: United Bible Societies, 1980), 50-51, 62-63; note that the presence of the ape could be a problem (ibid. 4) , but the baboon is never men­tioned.

285S. Fisch, Ezekiel (London: Soncino, 1957), 4; Taylor, Ezekiel, 55; Carley, Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, 15. The under­standing of Zurro, et al. (Ezequiel, 22-23), is not possible given the Hebrew text: "A imagen de ellos se imaginan los discfpulos de Ezequiel unos querubines cuadrimorfos: cara de hombre, alas de aguila, cuerpo de leon, pezunas de toro."

286Moshe Greenberg, Ezekiel 1-20, vol. 22 of The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1983), 55-56. Cf. Eichrodt, Ezekiel, 55.

287E.g. Turin Museum 16346/C 2326, a hypocephalus whose central figure has the heads of two rams, a cat and a Seth animal.

288Hans Ferdinand Fuhs, Ezekiel 1-24, Die Neue Echter Bible (Wiirzberg: Echter Verlag, 1984), 23-24; Taylor, Ezekiel, 55.

289Genesis 2:7.

Ezekiel later takes up the resurrection motif and the

association of the canopic figures with the four winds and combines

these with the breath of life motif289 in a way which somewhat

51

parallels Egyptian Texts.290 Ezekiel is shown a valley of bones,

from which "very dry bones" are resurrected following the Egyptian resurrection motif.291 Not much has been made of this connection

although Grenfell noted it back in 1906.292 Although the

iconography (if only the literary references thereto) may have been

borrowed from Egypt, much—though not all—of the associated

symbolism perished in the translation. The ideas associated with

the Jewish symbol are not those of the Egyptian symbol even if the

symbol is borrowed, for the symbol is adapted as it is translated across cultural boundaries.293

290PT 373; Cf. CT 519, reconstructed as follows: "Words spoken: Hail Osiris, the nomarch, N. Knit thyself upon thy bones; unite thy flesh; his members are the king, the god. He does not molder; he does not have an evil odor [Hw3, see James Henry Breasted, The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, 2 vols., vol. 3 of The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930), 549.]; he will not perish . . . comes forth from the nostrils of Seth; the wind of heaven perishes; she indeed perishes being in thy mouth; the stars perish when they are not in thy mouth. My children are thy flesh for life, that thou mayest live the life of the stars for thy turn of life."

291Ezekiel 37:1-10.

292Alice Grenfell, "Egyptian Mythology and the Bible," The Monist 16 (1906): 184-94. Grenfell says that this connection was suggested by J. G. Wilkinson in 1841 but I have not been able to trace this down to verify this fact.

293An effect familiar in other contexts; see Hornung, Concep­tions of God in Ancient Egypt, 125-26; "The reception of alien tradition may, of course, always involve the creation of new meanings." Burkert, Greek Religion, 24. Syncretism, or importa­tion of foreign elements into a culture, occurs not only with foreign contact but more especially with the political deportation into foreign territory, and thus deported peoples are more likely to graft something new into their cultural patterns; see Gordon Thomasson, "Togetherness is Sharing an Umbrella: Divine Kingship, the Gnosis, and Religious Syncretism," By Study and Also By Faith, ed. John M. Lundquist and Stephen Ricks, 2 vols. (Salt Lake City:

52

The same motif also appears in the Christian canon toward the

end of the first century A.D. in the Revelation of John, where he

sees "four beasts, . . . the first beast, like a lion, and the

second beast like an ox and the third beast having a face like a

man, and the fourth beast like a flying eagle."294 The motif is

also reflected in the "four angels standing upon the four corners

of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth."295

Deseret Book, 1990), 1:538-42. The implications of this for the passage in question is that Ezekiel, having been deported from Judah to Babylon, is more likely to graft something outside his cultural milieu into his work; but being a religious conservative, it is also likely that he would import something from a culture other than that of the one he is imported into.

294Revelation 4:6-7. Cf. Carley, Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, 15. As we shall see, the connection was known to the mediaeval commetators also.

295Revelation 7:1-2; cf. Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27 where the "chosen" are gathered from the four winds by messengers (angelous).

296Irenaeus, Contra Haereses III.9.8.

Irenaeus of Lyon, a Christian writer of the late second

century, picked up the four beasts motif and used it against the

Gnostics to prove that "the Gospels can neither be greater or

lesser in number than they are. For, since there are four areas of

the world in which we are, and four universal winds, and the Church

is scattered over the whole world, . . . therefore it follows that

she has four pillars, exhaling incorruptibility from all sides, and

reviving men."296 He then proceeds to quote the aforementioned

passage in the Revelation of John and equates the lion with John,

the bull with Luke, the man with Matthew and the eagle with

53

Mark.297 From Irenaeus this motif spread throughout the

Christian world, equating this revised version of the canopic jars

with the four evangelists and each with a corner of the earth,

although somehow the identifications changed to where Matthew was

the man; Mark, the lion; Luke, the bull; and John, the eagle.298

297Irenaeus, Contra Haereses III.9.8.

298This is an extremely wide-spread motif. A few examples of this which the author has observed include the facade of the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Pfarramt of the St. Andreas Church in Hildesheim, the ceiling of Bottecelli's chapel in Firenza, the silver baptismal basin in the Skattskammer in Stockholm, as well as the design on the pulpit of the Royal chapel above the Skattskammer. The individual who desires representations from the Greek Orthodox world should see Georgios Angelos Prokopiou, Kosmologikos Symbolismos sten Architektonike tou Byzantinou Naou (Athens: Pyrinos Kosmos, 1982), 120-22; Pinakades III, IV, VII; Eikones 76, 79, 82. For the manuscript tradition, see Carl Nordenfalk, "An Illustrated Diatessaron," The Art Bulletin 50/2 (1968): 125-26, 130-35, figs. 6-8, 14-28; note that in thisSyriac tradition, the assignment of the beasts to the evangelists is non-standard.

299"Fur den Kopten handelt es sich hier ganz selbstverstandlich urn eine besondere Engelklasse." C. Detlef G. Muller, Die Engel- lehre der koptischen Kirche (Wiesbaden: Harrosowitz, 1959), 83.

300Ibid., 83.

301Spiegel, Auferstehungsritual der Unas-Pyramide, 177.

The Coptic Christians took over the four beasts as part of

their Christian heritage without completely forgetting the original

Egyptian meaning. They considered the four beasts to be in a class

of angels by themselves.299 They connected them with

Michael,300 just as their forebears had connected the Sons of

Horus with Atum.301 These beasts stood close in the presence of

54

God,302 so much so that "the four beasts are intimately connected

with God."303 They had a special feast day on the 8th of

Athor304 (November 4) ,305 at which time the priest gave long

sermons on them.306 From Coptic Egypt they made their way to

England.307 Some scholars while noting the identification of the

beasts and the evangelists have not connected the beasts with their Egyptian origin,308 usually citing instead the cherubim and

seraphim,309 "the sirens and cupids of antiquity",310 or magic

as their origin.311

302"grOBe Nahe zu Gottes Thron," Muller, Engellehre den kopti- schen Kirche, 83.

303Ibid., 83.

304Ibid., 84. Note the antiquity of the date in the inscrip­tion cited in Brugsch, Geographie des alten Aegyptens, 36.

one , ,If the equivalences between the Egyptian calendar and our own given in Edgar J. Goodspeed and Ernest Cadman Colwell, A Greek Papyrus Reader (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935), 83 are accurate.

306Muller, Engellehre der koptischen Kirche, 84; Muller lists quite a few of these homilies (usually attributed to John Chrysostom) on the subject but most of them are unpublished and in Arabic; see ibid., 270-272; the one published example which appears to be the most important is Kitab at-tacaza ar-rfl hiya (Kairo, 1642) . I have been unable to examine these texts myself.

307Miiller, Engellehre den koptischen Kirche, 84.

308Ibid., 83, 99 (citing Mercer and Budge!); Hornung, Ancient Egyptian Conceptions of God, 124-25.

309Muller, Engellehre den koptischen Kirche, 83.

310Prokopios, Kosmologikos Symbolismos sten Architektonike tou Byzantinou Naou, 121.

311"Ihre Quelle ist die Magie." Muller, Engellehre den kopt­ischen Kirche, 84.

55

Magic, though doubtful as a source for the Judeo-Christian

iconography, is connected with perhaps the latest incarnation of

the Sons of Horus. The great mediaeval scholar Snorri Strurluson

records in his Heimskringla that the rapacious Danish king Harald

Gormsson, after pirating the contents of an Icelandic trading

vessel, found himself the object of the Icelanders retaliatory

jests. Therefore, he bid a wizard (kunngum manni) travel to

Iceland to reconnoitre the place preliminary to the impending

invasion. The wizard sallied forth as a whale (hvalsliki)

circumambulating the island widdershins and trying to sail up each

of the major landmarks which correspond roughly to the four points

of the compass (Vapnafjord, Eyjafjord, BreiQafjdrG, and at

Vikarsskeidi) . At each attempt, he was prevented from entry into

the country by one of the chief landvaettir accompanied by similar

but smaller versions of the same thing: a dragon, an eagle, a

bull, and a mountain giant. The wizard's reconnaissance report to

King Harald resulted in the armada of the latter withdrawing to

Denmark.312 The landvaettir are also explicitely connected with

the four administrative districts of Iceland here whence come the

creatures surrounding the shield on the official coat of arms of

Iceland (Figure 7).313 Snorri, being both literate and

312Snorri Sturluson, Olafs Saga Tryggvarsonar 33, in Snorri Sturluson Heimskringla I, vol. 26 of islenzk Fornrit (Reykjavik: fslenzka Fornritafelag, 1941), 270-72.

313A. Guy Hope and Janet Barker Hope, Symbols of the Nations (Washington, D. C.: Public Affairs Press, 1973), 126-27; Paul Schach, Icelandic Sagas (Boston: Twayne, 1984), 16-17.

56

Christian,314 would likely have known of the Biblical parallel;

more than one scholar of the Norse favors the view that "Snorri's

inspiration for this story about the four fetches, which at the

same time are the chief guardian spirits of the country

(landvaettir) , came from a homily which the historian probably heard read each year on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist."315

This homily relates how, "Ezekiel who was a prophet (spa-madr) long

before the birth of Christ saw the same creatures in heaven that John himself saw in heaven."316 The only difference between the

beasts of the Judeo-Christian tradition and the guardian spirits of

Iceland is that the lion has been replaced by a dragon.317

314See Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, prologue. On the Christianization of Iceland in general see Ari borgilsson, Islendingabok, sub A.D. 1000; Brennu-Njals Saga 100-105; Laxdaela Saga 40-41.

315Paul Schach, "Symbolic Dreams of Future Renown in Old Icelandic Literature," Mosaic 4/4 (1971): 60, with references.

316"Dvi at Ezechiel spa-mad er mycclu var fyrir burd Crist sa pesse en saemo cyqvende a himni sem Iohannes sa 1 himna syn sinni." Gamal Norsk Homiliebok: Cod. Am 619 4°, Gustav Indrebd, ed. (Oslo: Kjeldeskriftfondet, 1931), 48. The entire homily is pertinent here; ibid., 47-50.

317The lion, vargr-dyr or here oarga dyr "wolf-animal", was not unknown in Norse literature, but it was not known very well, always being referred to as an imported rarity; see Marianne E. Kalinke, Bridal-Quest Romance in Medieval Iceland, vol. 46 of Islandica (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 57-58, 137. The homily must explain that a lion "er staercst er allra dyra (is the strongest of all animals)" Gamal Norsk Homiliebok, 48.

This is not to suggest that just any group of four beasts in

any culture are connected with or derived from the Sons of Horus;

the four supernatural creatures of China, the Si Ling, are cer­

57

tainly not. Nevertheless the Sons of Horus illustrate that

"there are few absolute beginnings in literary history, but there

is endless transformation."318 319

3180n the Si Ling, see William Frederick Mayers, The Chinese Reader's Manual, (London, Probsthain and Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1910), 43-44, 100-1, 136, 151-53, 327. Many thanks to Theron Stanford for having pointed out this source.

319Clive Staples Lewis, The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1936), 234.

320John Wilson, "The God and his Unknown Name of Power," in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Universi­ty Press, 1969), 13.

In sum, the original function of the Sons of Horus was to

assist the deceased to travel through the heavens. There is no

evidence to connect the Sons of Horus with the canopic jars until

the First Intermediate Period. In later times the deceased gave

forth his own exta to obtain this revelatory tour of the heavens in

a peculiarly Egyptian twist on the usual extispicy; in this way

mummification can be seen as sacrifice "after the manner of the

Egyptians". The organs were only out on loan; for giving them his

all, the deceased was assured of resurrection when the sons of

Horus would restore that which had been removed. Finally, as the

Egyptian sun god changes his form from Kheperi in the morning

through Re at noon to Atum in the evening,320 so throughout

history the Sons of Horus have changed their guise thrusting their

heads into the public street to gaze on Christian fools with

varnished faces.

58

Table of Abbreviations

AA Agyptologische Abhandlungen.AAE John Baines and Jaromir M&lek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt (New

York: Facts on File, 1980).AEL Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3 vols.

(Berkeley: University of Californian Press, 1973-80) .AEO Alan H. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, 2 vols.

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947).AF Agyptologische Forschungen.AfO Archiv fur Orientforschung.AHw Wolfram von Soden, Akkadische Handworterbuch, 3 vols. (Wies­

baden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1965-81).APAW Abhandlungen der PreuBischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.AV Archaologische VeroffentlichungenBA Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca.BD Book of the Dead; unless otherwise indicated in Richard

Lepsius, Das Todtenbuch der Agypten nach dem hieroglyphischen Payprus in Turin (Leipzig: Georg Wigand, 1842); and Thomas George Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day vol. 37 of SAOC (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) .

BdE Bibliotheque d'Etudes.BSEG Bulletin de la Societe d'Egyptologie Geneve.CAA Corpus Antiquitatem Aegyptiacarum (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von

Zabern).CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the

University of Chicago, 21 vols. (Gluckstadt: J. J. Augustin, 1956-). ' "

CCG Cairo Museum Catalogue Generale.CdE Chronique d'Egypte.CDME Faulkner, Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Oxford:

Griffith Institute, 1962).CEMAP Giuseppe Botti, I Cimeli Egizi del Museo de Anticita di

Parma, vol. IX of Studi (Firenze: LeoS. Olschki, 1964) CIT Canopic Inscription Typus in GEA 1*-16*.CT Coffin Texts; see Adriaan de Buck The Egyptian Coffin Texts,

8 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935-62) .DLE Leonard H. Lesko, A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, 5 vols.

(Berkeley, California and Providence, Rhode Island: B. C.Scribe Publications, 1982-90).

EAT Otto Neugebauer and Richard A. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts, 3 vols. (Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press, 1960-69).

FERE Fondation Egyptologigue Reine Elizabeth.GEA Kurt Sethe, "Zur Geschichte der Einbalsamierung bei den

Agyptern und einiger damit verbundener Brauche," SPAM (April 26, 1934): 211-39, 1*-16* reprinted in Leipziger und berlinerAkademieschriften (1902-1934) , vol. 11 of Opuscula (Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1976).

GM Gottinger Miszellen.GO Gottinger Orientforschungen.

59

HAB Hildesheimer Agyptologische Beitrage.HE Historia Ecclesiastica.IE Improvement Era.IFAO Institut frangais d'archeologie orientale.JARCE Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt.JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi.LdA Lexikon der Agyptologie, 7 vols. (Wiesbaden: Otto Harras-

sowitz, 1977).MAS Miinchner agyptologische Studien.MK Middle Kingdom.NK New Kingdom.NUTBF Johannes Koch, Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des

babylonischen Fixsternhimmels (Wiesbaden: Otto Harras- sowitz, 1989)

0B0 Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis.OK Old Kingdom.OMRO Oudheidkundige mededeelingen uit het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

te Leiden.PGM Karl Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae (Die griechischen

Zauberpapyri) (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1931).PT Pyramid Texts.RAC George Andrew Reisner and Mohammed Hassan Abd-ul-Rahman,

Canopies, Catelogue General des Antiquites Egyptiennes (Caire: Institut Frangais d'Archeologie Orientale, 1967) .

RARG Hans Bonnet, Reallexikon der agyptischen Religionsgeschichte (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1952).

RdE Revue d'Egyptologie.SAK Studien zur altagyptischen Kultur.SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization.SE Shire Egyptology.SPAW Sitzungsberichte der preussichen Akademie der Wissenschaften,

Philosophisch-historische Klasse.UAK Barbara Luscher, Untersuchungen zu agyptischen Kanopenkasten:

vom Alten Reich bis zum Ende der Zweiten Zwischenzeit, vol. 31 of HAB (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1990).

UGAA Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Atertumskunde Agyptens.Urk. Urkunden des aegyptischen Altertums.WKMAS Wien Kunsthistorisches Museum Agyptisch-orientalische

SammlungZAS Zeitschrift fur agyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde.

Guide to the FiguresFigure 1- A typical Old Kingdom canopic jar, devoid of decoration and

inscription. This particular jar comes from the Tomb of Meruka at Giza. If the Sons of Horus were connected with the canopic jars in the Old Kingdom, we have no evidence for it. From Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza 1929-1930 (Oxford: University Press, 1932), Plate XLII redrawn by Michael Lyon.

Figure 2- This priest wears the jackal mask so that he can officiate as Anubis. The mask is awkward and difficult to see out of, so his friend must guide him. Though the illustration is Ptolemaic, the practice goes back to the 5th Dynasty: "Thy hand, arms, belly, back, rear, and legs are like Atum [who is always depicted as a human], but thy face is like Anubis" (PT 213 §135). From Auguste Edouard Mariette, Denderah, 4 vols. (Paris, 1870-74, reprinted Hildesheim: Olms, 1981), 4:Plate 31.

Figure 3- If the Sons of Horus insured the uprightness of the deceased, they also had their sinister side. Here they help ritually administer the blows of death on Seth. Ptolemaic Period, from the temple at Denderah. From Mariette, Denderah, 4:Plate 56.

Figure 4- Papyrus Leiden I 384 verso Column 17. A lion couch scene with the perfectly legible Greek inscription, "Let Abraham who . . . upon ... be dumbfounded" immediately under it. The figure on the couch is female, and the text when legible reads "Incinerate N to ashes. . . . Burn N until she comes into my, N's, presence, quickly, quickly, haste, haste, I adjure you, gods of the dead, by the dead kings and the demon Baal-shammayim (Lord of the heavens), and the jackal headed god and gods with him." (PGM 12:479-96; cf. Abraham 1:11). Redrawn by John Gee.

Figure 5- The four birds represent the Sons of Horus, heralding the accession of Ramses II, in the Festival of Min at the Ramesseum (19th Dynasty). The text above the birds, in typical Egyptian fashion—of inscription all compact—reads: "Imseti, go south that you may tell the southern gods that Horus, son of Isis and Osiris has assumed the crown and Ramses II has assumed the crown; Hapi, go north that you may tell the northern gods that Horus, son of Isis and Osiris has assumed the crown and Ramses II has assumed the crown; Duamutef, go east that you may tell the eastern gods that Horus, son of Isis and Osiris has assumed the crown and Ramses II has assumed the crown; Qebhsenuef, go west that you may tell the western gods that Horus, son of Isis and Osiris has assumed the crown and Ramses II has assumed the crown." Somehow the Egyptians manage to be concise and bombastic simultaneously. The motif goes back to the Old Kingdom. From The Epigraphical Survey, Festival Scenes of Ramses III (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), Plate 213.

Figure 6- Resurrection morning: Ani bursts forth from his tomb holding signs of life. The resurrection is made possible by the Sons of Horus gathering the members together in their family reunion. Their pictures also decorate the sarcophagus. Vignette from BD 17. From E. A. W. Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, 3 vols. (New York, NY: Putnam's Sons, 1913), 3:Plate 8, redrawn by Michael Lyon.

Figure 7- The State Coat of Arms of Iceland, possibly the latest transformation of the Sons of Horus. Of course, it looks much more spectacular in color. From A. Guy Hope and Janet Barker Hope, Symbols of the Nations (Washington, D. C. : Public Affairs Press, 1973), 127 redrawn by Michael Lyon.